Dedication

History cannot be summarised in keywords. Nevertheless, I would like to give two here. Reading has developed from "praying" to "leafing". This does not mean that the current reader is qualitatively incapable of devoting himself to a book, but that in quantitative terms there has been an enormous massification of reading and the production of the written word that has made it simply impossible to absorb everything word by word, softly muttering, thoughtfully and cautiously. "Leafing" necessarily emerged from "praying". Reading has (often) become routine, text a disposable item. But the path from hieroglyph to advertising brochure, from cuneiform to e-mail is not a one-way street; those who want to can always go back a bit to wonder where they came from.' - Jan Hendrik Bakker

Devotion is a history of reading and writing, from hieroglyphics to email, from the medieval codex to the storytelling machines of the future. It is a philosophical plea to integrate the humane values ​​of the written tradition into the world of electronic media."