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Article: The joys of Reading.
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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BACON said 'Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man'. (I recall a favourite undergraduate howler: "'Eating maketh a full man" (Bacon)'.) We are told that the age of the printed word between hard, or even paper, covers is passing. It has had a long run. Half a millennium of moveable type: well, we cannot justly complain if it is replaced by something intangible, ethereal and electronic; just as long as 'the Word' remains. 'In the beginning was the Word', as St John thought-provokingly says, and so it will remain until some clever man in the West of America discovers a way to communicate thoughts direct from your skull to mine without ...