Theme 1 – Historical reading practices: silent vs. aloud reading in antiquity
- “There's been a lot of debate over the years about what exactly it was that Ambrose was doing differently, and whether silent reading was really so uncommon in antiquity.” – xhevahir
- “The argument for the Ambrose case is that the surprise isn't him reading silently, it's him reading silently while he has guests. (and elsewhere in the text Augustine mentions himself reading silently by himself in a way that suggests it's entirely normal)” – Khoth
- Augustine’s own description: “I returned in haste to the place where Alipius was sitting… I seized it, opened it, and read in silence the chapter upon which my eyes first fell” – dr_dshiv
Theme 2 – Worries about contemporary literacy and comprehension
- “There was quite sobering research published recently about English college students who couldn't parse the opening paragraphs of Bleak House, even with assistance.” – Barrin92
- “In the developed world broadly cognitive performance has been crashing for about a decade, i.e. the 'learning recession'. Talk to anyone who teaches these days and you usually get a fairly depressing story about kids being unable to decode basic information.” – Barrin92
- “US performance in reading dropped to basically the lowest levels ever during the latest test… other countries like Germany had a bigger drop in reading performance that started earlier.” – myrmidon
Theme 3 – Personal reading strategies and adaptations (e.g., reading aloud for focus)
- “I have taken recently the habit of reading aloud, especially course texts, doc’s and other boring stuff I easily get distracted with. I pretend to be a BBC 4 broadcaster. It seems to work.” – delis-thumbs-7e
- “fellow ADHD. if you read in a place with no distractions, you can read silently, and fast for a long time.” – jan_m_savage
- “My six‑year‑old… will sit and read for hours, and stuff that's way beyond what you'd expect of a six‑year‑old.” – ErroneousBosh