Analyzing Birkert's essay

Birkerts claims in his essay "The Owl Has Flown" that as humans have made advances in their writing and thinking, their reading habits have changed in different, not entirely for the better, either. People are reading extensively, with a wide variety of periodicals, short stories and now the Internet at their disposal, the literate class is losing the ability to read "vertically" or with wisdom, preferring instead to learn trivia and esoteric know-how. He comments to prove his idea that reading is a more oft neglected practice with his statement "Reading and thinking are kindred operations, if only because both are actually and historically invisible. Of the two, reading has the stronger claim to invisibility, for thought at least finds a home from time to time in the written sign, whereas the reception of the written sign leaves no trace unless in written accounts after the fact."

Birket's suggestion that people should read intensively again, or re-read the same piece of literature over and over, makes sense. But on the other hand it seems that a medium should be reached instead, with our culture advocating both intensive and extensive reading equally. His argument that reading is more invisible is one that I reaffirm, knowledge from reading is almost never recorded unless it is in work the reader later puts into their own words, sometimes analytically, sometimes in passing. Perhaps it is is safe to say that while writing may be moving faster and more obviously than reading, they will always do so until someone finds an alternative.