I think specific, but not archaic. The written word can be beautiful like any other form of art - it's not only about transmitting information but transmitting emotion. Sorta like a photograph, painting, or song.
Yes, as other's have pointed, its just really hard to write well, I have thought that books are just an inefficient medium, but once I started reading more broadly, outside of computer topics, I discovered that engineers are just horrible writers.
Yes, I think so. When you read a book you spend a long time with the ideas it contains. You think about the book when you go about your day: primed by what you're reading, you see new connections. You are in conversation with the book. Maybe parts of the book seep into your dreams. Years later, you might remember what you were doing when you read a particular passage.
Much of this is because reading a book takes time.
I think because good writing is easier to read and understand than bad writing, there's almost an inverse relationship between how easy writing seems and how easy it is to read. So you read something and think "well, this is obvious" but the magic trick is how much work went in to making it so.
