Two videos below of Alan Jacobs.
In the first one he informally talks about his new book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. (The introduction takes 4.5 minutes.)
In the second he lectures on his work-in-progress thoughts on “Christianity and the Future of the Book.” (The introduction takes 2 minutes.) He looks at reading in the time of Jesus, the transformation of scrolls to codex to e-Readers, how technology impacts reading, and more.
JT:
I was in the audience for the Hudson Institute lecture. I think everyone will love the part when he gets to his own recovery of reading and the use of his right thumb.
Thanks for posting this.
Blessings!
ECR
I didn’t make it past the introductions…but will get the book off amazon. It’s the second “review” related to this topic that I’ve read this morning. I just posted about David Mays’ review on Carr’s book The Shallows (impossible to not see the effects/impact of distraction and technology). I want to read both….thanks for sharing.
Hi Justin,
I have read several essays by Jacobs along with his book, A Theology of Reading. All were terrific.
Unfortunately, the lecture Jacobs gave on his latest book and the book’s thesis leave me scratching my head. During the question and answer time, Jacobs really did not get at the nub of the initial question about Phil. 4:8 and its implications for reading.
Dave
Justin,
The second video which is a lecture at NSA is absolutely brilliant…full of implications.
Thanks for posting these!
Dave
How bizarre. His Kindle discussion came right out of left field, but it is exactly as I found it too. Since having a Kindle, my reading has increased 10-fold and I have lost interest in checking my email.
I too have been puzzling over why this occurred.
Is it ok that my first bemused thought was to note the irony of watching a video on Vimeo discussing the pleasures of reading and impact of technology on reading? I’ll certainly have to watch (and maybe even read) his discussion so I’ll be able to make an educated assessment of my first reaction.
I loved Jacobs’ book The Narnian, but after listening to only half of the first lecture, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to like this book. First,the purpose of reading, especially reading literature, has always been twofold – to teach and to delight, like two blades of scissors you can’t separate them. More goes on inside of you when you read than just isolated pleasure. Second, what he said about the classics and how they are so demanding that we should only read them every once in a while made no sense to me. Scripture is also a Book that places incredible demands on us, and yet we certainly don’t want to read it only every once in a while. Far better to train our minds to become such that we can meet the challenge of those demands. Last, but certainly not least, my problem is not so much that Jacobs is being a hedonist, but that his philosophy or definition of pleasure seems off, or I’m missing something from his arguments. It struck me that when he used the term pleasure, he meant something subjective. I much prefer what I learned from Lewis in The Abolition of Man and The Weight of Glory. I agree that reading for pleasure is important, but what does he mean by pleasure? Our ideas of pleasure are usually too weak, not too strong!