The Owl Has Flown - first 3 paragraphs summary

Today we may see reading as a sort of chore; we have to read for an assignment or we may have to read that lengthy Christmas card from grandma…however, as Sven Birkert points out in the opening paragraphs of his essay “The Owl has Flown” reading has not always been as it is today. He states that reading and thinking alike are special operations, each mysterious in their invisible nature.
Before the seventh century there were only some readers who did the task silently; reading was a social event. It was done aloud in a group. Now reading is really only social in the sense that nearly everyone does it; and we typically read the same things. Once books became mechanically produced they lost some of the enchantment people had had for them, as well as value. Once nearly anyone could own books and nearly anyone could learn to read, people began taking this once sacred act for granted. Where men had once read the same books and documents over and over they were now quickly moving from one text to the next. Birkerts explains that this sweeping change in society’s attitude towards reading has changed how we process information.