Is innovation wiping out reading?

Fascinating story in Duke Magazine about the abrupt changes taking place in the culture of reading. I think it’s especially interesting that not until the very end of the discussion, and then only obliquely, did anyone touch on the idea of reading as an aesthetic experience involving the senses as well as the intellect.

Is reading only a process of absorbing written information or does the visual design of the book, the feel of natural materials such as leather and paper, the smell of ink, the gentle glow of light on pages (not from them) add up to something richer, more focused and more deeply informing  than characters on a screen?