When we read digital literature, we have to shift from a hermeneutics of linguistic signs to a hermenity of inter medial, interactive, and processing signs. (Katherine Hayles) 2012

Close reading, in terms of literary criticism, is the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. The style of reading places emphasis on a particular element of a story rather than the general theme. It causes the reader to pay close attention to individual words, syntax, and the order in which sentences unfold as they are read. In terms of understanding digital literature, close reading on its own, is not sufficient to comprehend narratives. 

_{The Need for a New Method of Reading:} 2012

A) Close Reading still belongs: Close reading, learned through practice with literary texts is a widely applicable skill. It is also a term which defines a largely unorganized set of practices and assumptions. The lack of organization is becoming apparent as digital reading and writing becomes used on a regular basis. 

B) Hyper Reading: Studies have shown that hyper reading is significantly different from print readings and that hyper reading stimulates different brain functions then print. It is necessary, in the modern age of information, for scholars to be able to sort large quantities of information in a timely manner. Hyper reading when broken down into its simplest form, is made of two techniques. Skimming is a method of rapidly moving the eyes over text with the purpose of getting only the main ideas and a general overview of the content. Scanning is used to quickly cover a great deal of content in order to gain knowledge of the main themes and ideas. In contemporary digital environments involving great deals of information, hyper reading is an essential tool for readers. 

C) Machine-Reading: Machine reading is the process of disassembling and parsing input. Difficulties arise in machines because of the occurrence of unknown and unexpected features in the input as well as the need to determine the appropriate syntactic and semantic schemes. This being said the current wave of rapid innovation in technology is quickly addressing these problems making machine reading a possibility.

The need for a newly developed form of reading is crucial for digital literature. Close reading has proven to be the greatest method for analysis and understanding of print media, but digital media requires a different set of skills. Reading digital pieces has been proven to alter they reading process of its audience. Speed and the ability to comprehend short or small pieces of digital work is the attitude of those working in the digital realm. These processes inherent with digital works must be addressed in order to identify a suitable method of reading. The combination of close reading, hyper reading, and machine reading as outline by Katherine Hayles, appears to be an immediate answer to the problem.