as a landmark in the history of
commentary on book making and reading. In it she argued that type
and all other aspects of book production should be "transparent."
Using the analogy of a drinking glass, she maintained that someone
who appreciates wine would prefer a glass that showed and delivered
the wine to its fullest advantage, without any hindrance or distraction
from ornament or irregularity. She extended the metaphor in several
ways: the stem of the glass, for instance, was analogous to the margins
of a printed page: both stem and margins provide handles so the
fingers of the drinker or reader don't cover the real prize. According
to Ms. Warde, nothing should come between the reader and the words
and ideas of the author. These are noble sentiments, and many elegant
books have been produced by people whoreading rates causes serious
problems in all areas of contemporary life, from the ability to handle
anticipation to attention spans to the ability to make realistic plans
and projections. With the advent of television came a quantum leap in
distortion of perceptions of time. On one level, it brought about a
greater desire for acquiring goods immediately, which in turn
encouraged purchases on credit, in some instances reinstating
perpetual cycles of debt. On another level, the time slots allotted for
programs brought the mechanical schedule of the factory into peoples
daily lives. Watching television also prepared people for using
computers, which resemble televisions with keyboards.

Perhaps no other change in the history of literacy has developed
as quickly as the move to computer technology. It's nature would be
hard to describe at this point, as its direction is still uncertain. It