Unlike much contemporary media, which aims, asymptotically, for a total takeover of the senses, reading doesn't make demands on more than one sense at a time. Consequently, while one is reading, one's agency and physical autonomy remain front and center: the feeling of a page-turner is partly so exciting because you still have to turn the page. You can put down a book and start it up again without missing anything—there's no imperative to sit through it simply because you paid the price of admission, your date is digging it, and you bought a seven-dollar tub of popcorn.

—Maggie Nelson, The Art of Cruelty