I'm not certain to what extent that's true. One of the (few) cheering things I find about riding the subway is that it's rare, as I look up and down whatever coach I'm on, not to see at least a few passengers buried in books. True, they're outnumbered by the newspaper readers and by the folks who're just staring fixedly into space, but they're -- and we're -- not rarae avidae (I think that's the correct plural!).