Good Lord, what an ailment....

Two different bloggers have posts that have me feeling a bit glum about the future of reading today.

First is this news item, cited by John Scalzi. It seems that kids just aren't used to handling books for long periods of time, and thus are getting headaches from the physical effort of reading...Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That's all we need: a medical reason not to read. (Yeah, I'm taking this too seriously. Sue me.)

And if that doesn't make you give up all hope, this missive from one of the Blowhardic Duo might. There's a lot here, so read the whole thing, but the sad gist of it is Michael's belief that reading in-and-of-itself, in the form of sitting down with a book and just reading it, is going to continue to regress into its own little niche. Ugh.