Thought Police

"T'ain't so, McGee." -- Molly McGee.

   Research popped up recently claiming that people stop reading certain books after a given number of pages. Specifically, the study by Pew Research, citing the number of highlighted passages in the Kindle version of Thomas Piketty's book, "Capital in the 21st Century," pointed out that highlighting stopped around page 26 of the book. Therefore, the experts concluded, people stopped reading the book.
   There's no doubt that Piketty's best-seller is a difficult read, and takes determination to slog through the early pages. But to link highlighting to readership is a leap, and may not be justified. While the Kindle data stored in Amazon's computers clearly show that highlighting slows and stops on average around page 26 of the Piketty book, it does not follow that Kindlers have stopped reading. An equally valid conclusion is that they have stopped highlighting.
   Those who buy used college textbooks have for decades seen passages underlined, marked, highlighted or otherwise tampered with a book that prior students do not intend to keep, and buyers have seen the amount of marking slow and stop part way through the book, this is not proof that the students don't read the entire book. Again, it only means they have stopped highlighting and marking. And that can mean they are beginning to understand the author's message and no longer feel the need to mark up the text.
   And, of course, there are many folks who never mark, highlight, underline or otherwise violate their books at all. According to the research experts, this is evidence that these folks do not read.
   Among these folks, a book is a sacred trust, and they resent the idea that others feel at liberty to tamper with the appearance of a book they know they will sell or otherwise pass on to others.
   As for Amazon's practice of keeping track of the highlighted passages of Kindle ebooks, and showing these highlighted passages to all  future users, how dare you presume to carry forward the markings of others, who may or may not have marked important passages? What's important to one may be drivel to another. Moreover, it may be evidence of the density of some readers to be unable to understand what the author is attempting to communicate.
   In effect, highlighters are saying, READ THIS PART. I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT!!! (Who cares what you think?) Future readers may not agree, and resent the markings of ignoramuses who are so dense that they must highlight nearly every paragraph in the book.
   So while it may be helpful to some to underline or highlight key words or phrases as a study aid, marking entire paragraphs or pages is counterproductive, especially since many textbooks already make use of contrasting colors to draw reader attention to important ponts. 
   If you plan to keep a book, it is your right to do whatever marking you like. But to pass on your notations to others is dishonorable to the book itself.
   
   In addition, there is the practice of ebook vendors of keeping track of who marked which passage of which book. This yields information to corporate vendors, who can use it to further target their marketing of other things to readers.
   But a bigger question is what happens when this data is provided to government Thought Police.