11 READING This is an age of speed! Technological advance has brought jet airplanes and streamlined trains whizzing over transportation lines, helicopters carrying the mail, missiles hurtling through space; telegraphs, long-distance phones, radio, television, telstar and flashing communications. These are just a few examples of the Revolution in Speed, which is hastening us along in its breathless velocity.
As for reading, thousands of newspapers, hundreds of magazines and dozens of books roll from the presses daily, speeded by technological invention. Yet no one has enough time to read as much as he would wish. We hurry all day long - workers hurry to their jobs in the morning and they hurry through the working hours in an attempt to accomplish as much as possible. After work they hurry home to hurry out in the evening to a business dinner, a social function, or one of many fascinating diversions. There is more reading to be done than ever before and less time in which to do it! What is the answer? Not more time in which to read, Out the ability to read more in the time we have.
(From Reading Instructions for Today's Children by Nila Banton Smith)