Much of the problem is that we live in a passive age. To listen to a record album, to sit through a movie, to watch a television show—all require nothing of the cultural consumer, save his mere presence. To read a book, though, takes an act of will on the part of the consumer. He must genuinely want to find out what is inside. He cannot just sit there; he must do something, even though the something is as simple an action as opening the book, closing the door and beginning to read. In generations before my own, this was taken for granted as an important part of life. But now, in the day of the "information retrieval system", such a reverence is not being placed on the reading, and then saving, of books. If a young American reads at all, he is far more likely to purchase a paperback that may be flipped through and then thrown away. In a disposable age, the book for keeping and rereading is an anachronism, a ponderous dinosaur in a high-speed society.