I use a screen reader for the majority of my reading so I have a literal measuring stick on how difficult to understand something is by how fast I can listen to

I use a screen reader for the majority of my reading so I have a literal measuring stick on how difficult to understand something is by how fast I can listen to it and still understand it. My usual range is between 100 and 1000 wpm. The majority of modern writing is in the 700+wpm range. The majority of pre-wwii writing is in the 400-600wpm range. Technical books, like say a math book, are in the 100-300wpm range and I need to listen to them multiple times and it doesn't escape my notice that the parts which slow me down the most are the math heavy ones. It's not that we get more easily distracted when reading today it's that our books contain less information in some fundamental way and are more boring than older books. I blame the fact that the majority of them are written with a keyboard. A medium that lets you write faster than you can think with obvious results. I don't know what modern book would have it's first few drafts be hand written but I would bet any such book would be vastly more interesting to read by the simple fact that the person who wrote it had at least five times as long to think about what they were writing than someone who used a keyboard or type writer. For interest the article was understandable at 800wpm and this post at 600wpm.