How can we be sure old books were ever read? – University of Glasgow Library
Owning a book isn’t the same as reading it; we need only look at our own bloated bookshelves for confirmation.
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With the help of Tom Gauld, one final thought: just how easy will it be for academics of the future to look back at our present reading behaviour? Bits, bytes, page-clicks and logged keystrokes will surely be able to tell them what web pages we visited but what of physical material evidence confirming reading? That may be more elusive.
