The culture of reading and pessimism about it

Just watched this interview of Salman Rushdie at PennState university.
Someone asked him about the reading habits in today's times and he replies (at 48:52) saying "Reason for pessimism(about the culture of reading) can be expressed in 2 words Dan and Brown". The book he's refering to is 'Da Vinci code' and he calls it "that book shape object[called Da Vinci Code]" or the same shape as the packet of cereals.

The Q&A from 47:55 to 52:54 can be found here