Die Hofmeisterin offers respite from today’s practice of constant scrolling for content, replacing it with the practice of deep reading which provides a feeling of connection and reestablishes a sense of focus.
In our digital age, this act of deep reading is a counter-cultural practice.
Deep reading is not only curious about plot. It also investigates sentence structure, word choice, and rhythm. We are interested in what makes reading a book unique, what differentiates our interaction with a book from our interaction with a film, a graphic novel, or even an audio-book or an e-book.
Deep readers are asked to follow complex arguments and invited to enter fictional and non-fictional worlds that enhance their own lived experience. The result is a level of satisfaction and reflection that the hyper-reading skills required in today’s digitized world cannot provide.
Deep reading of complex texts can also act as a powerful antidote to the loss of concentration and focus researchers have been able to trace back to prolonged screen-time exposure.
It’s about entering into dialogue between you and the book! No technological intermediary required!
Moving screens present content in a linear form. They do not allow readers to follow their own inner rhythm or processing speed. As a result, screen readers have a much harder time integrating the information. The physical interaction with the book–flipping back a few pages, rereading a sentence, underlining or scribbling comments or questions in the margins–provides room for reflection and interaction.
“My participation awakened a new sensibility for language. For me, it’s now no longer just about what’s happening in a text. It’s also about how the author expresses themselves.”
– Charlotte K., Freiburg im Breisgau