Customer Reviews

The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

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Alan Jacobs, who readers of my blog (nearearthobject-dot-net) may know from previous references to his excellent blog TextPatterns, has recently released a wonderful book about reading that I simply can't recommend highly enough. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction is just the sort of pithy, sympathetic tract that our times demand -- it encourages bibliographic exploration, celebrates chance literary encounters, while offering sincere understanding for the would-be "well-read" among us who fear missing out on an overly massive menu of "great works."

Those chance literary encounters are the subject of this passage, which I found so delightful and even moving, that I thought I'd share it here.

"The cultivation of serendipity is an option for anyone, but for people living in conditions of prosperity and security and informational richness it is something vital. To practice "accidental sagacity" is to recognize that I don't really know where I am going, even if I like to think I do, or think Google does; that if I know what I am looking for, I do not therefore know what I need; that I am not master of my destiny and captain of my fate; that it is probably a very good thing that I am not master of my destiny and captain of my fate. An accidental sagacity may be the form of wisdom I most need, but am least likely to find without eager pursuit. Moreover, serendipity is the near relation of Whim; each stands against the Plan. Plan once appealed to me, but I have grown to be a natural worshiper of Serendipity and Whim; I can try to serve other gods, but my heart is never in it. I truly think I would rather read an indifferent book on a lark than a fine one according to schedule and plan. And why not? After all, once upon a time we chose none of our reading: it all came to us unbidden, unanticipated, unknown, and from the hand of someone who loved us."

As the daddy of a toddler who absolutely loves to be read to, this strikes a chord. Jacobs reminds us that just as we trusted our parents to bring the world of words to us when we could not yet even speak sentences, so we can, as adults, allow the myriad chaotic forces around us to drop texts in our path, and accept them as they come, rather than worry over the time not spent on things we feel we are "supposed to" read.

Jacobs, incidentally, also confirms my feelings about the benefits of dedicated ereaders such as the Kindle. Particularly at this time in our technological lives when so many other gizmos promise to inundate us with all manner of simultaneous stimuli, Jacobs recognizes that this gizmo can help to cleanse the palate and provide oasis.

". . . people who know what it is like to be lost in a book, who value that experience, but who have misplaced it . . . They're the ones who need help, and want it, and are prepared to receive it. I had become one of those people myself, or was well on my way to it, when I was rescued through the novelty of reading on a Kindle. My hyper-attentive habits were alienating me further and further from the much older and (one would have thought) more firmly established habits of deep attention. I was rapidly becoming a victim of my own mind's plasticity, until a new technology helped me to remember how to do something that for years had been instinctive, unconscious, natural. I don't know whether an adult who has never practiced deep attention--who has never seriously read for information or for understanding, or even for delight--can learn how. But I'm confident that anyone who has ever had this facility can recover it: they just have to want that recovery enough to make sacrifices for it, something they will only do if they can vividly recall what that experience was like."

So beyond Jacobs' excellent prose and insight, perhaps one of the things that recommends this book to me so strongly is validation. I can live with that.

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Three thoughts about this book:

* Since my May 1 surgery, I had--until this week--been able to read exactly one book front-to-back: Tina Fey's "Bossypants." It was clever and entertaining, but it took all of an afternoon to read. Everything else I've tried to read the last two months has either been a bit of a slog, or else I've simply been unable to maintain focus. But reading is important to me; it frightened me to think I might be losing my capacity somehow. So when I saw this slim volume at the Joseph Fox Bookshop in Philadelphia, I snapped it up immediately. Maybe, just maybe, I could find my way back.

* A wise choice, because one of Jacobs' chief messages in this book is: "Relax." He eschews reading lists and eat-your-veggies approaches to reading in favor of urging readers to follow their Whim. In Jacobs' hands, this is not a call to dispense with Great Books and devote oneself entirely to Stephen King. He makes it quite clear that one's Whim--he's the one doing the capitalizing--can lead one both to high art and splendid trash, and that one can derive different sorts of pleasures from both. (He's also quite keen on the virtues of rereading certain books.)

* But how does one continue to be a book reader when Twitter, Facebook, and life itself are lurking all around? Jacobs doesn't really offer an answer to this question: Instead, he suggests that it is possible, with some persistent effort, to create a "cone of silence" around oneself--if one chooses to do so. And perhaps he's right: I managed to read this 150-page book in three days. On a long holiday weekend, to be sure, but it was possible. Jacobs' book about the pleasures of reading turns out to be a pleasurable read in its own right.

For one who has been drawn to lists of great books, various reading plans, and Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren's How To Read a Book in the past, Alan Jacobs' new book is a fun and challenging read. As a sort of rejoinder to How to Read a Book, Jacobs extols reading by Whim and serendipity, while at the same time offering some practical approaches to the practice of reading. If you enjoy books or books about books you'll probably enjoy The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction.

I read this book on my Kindle, and I liked it so much that I will buy it again in hard copy (eventually) to have it for quicker, easier navigation--so I hope I've earned the right to one criticism. It's a very thoughtful and well-supported book overall, but the author's claim, if I understand him correctly, in the section about college that deep reading and deep thinking are inessential for the student seems wrong to me. I agree (as an English professor myself of over twenty years experience) that trying to convert students to the pleasures of life-long reading at the general-ed level and to some extent even in advanced courses is hard and probably represents a misplaced focus. But I would say that the ability for students to engage in deep reading and deep thinking as part of their studies should still remain a part of what we think of as "college-level skills and expectations." Here is what Professor Jacobs says: "Over the past 150 years, it has become increasingly difficult to extricate reading from academic expectations; but I believe that such extrication is necessary. Education is and should be primarily about intellectual navigation, about--I scruple not to say it--skimming well, and reading carefully for information in order to upload content. Slow and patient reading, by contrast, properly belongs to our leisure hours." Later, he adds: "There is a kind of attentiveness proper to school, to purposeful learning of all kinds, but in general it is closer to 'hyper attention' than to 'deep attention.' I would argue that even reading for information--reading textbooks and the like--does not require extended unbroken focus. It requires discipline but not raptness, I think."

I would hate to exclude deep thinking from college, though I agree that at the general ed level and even beyond this skill does not make up most of what the student does. But I would argue that learning "intellectual navigation" means finding and maybe even sharpening the skill of differentiating essential from incidental things in a field of study, and deeper thought (what is still called "critical thinking" sometimes) is needed for that. Much of the content that is uploaded will eventually be obsolete, so the skill of being able to think usefully about the field or the subject is all the more . . . wait a minute. All of this is sooooo obvious as not to need explaining. How could Mr. Jacobs seriously be saying that deep thinking and deep reading should be relinquished from college expectations? Surely he is just saying that teachers out to instill a love of reading are taking on a futile chore but that expecting students to learn to weigh things and assess things and to think deeply and well about the information they are given is not expecting too much. Surely. Every teacher knows it's hard to get students to think deeply and to do more than just give back, sponge-like, the information they have been given in class or in a text, but every teacher also knows that, however challenging, this is nonetheless possible, and they can identify moments every semester when it's happened (that it doesn't occur as often as we'd like doesn't mean it's not happening). If you can't expect deeper thinking and reading in a college classroom anymore, where can we go to find it?

I am a self-confessed reader. Sometimes I am voracious, other times cautious, reading either too fast or too slow. Now and then I like to read the odd book, typically written by a professor, about what it means to read and why. This is one of those books but with less emphasis on the why but the how. How does one read with a cell phone, with Twitter and Facebook in easy reach? (I don't have those problems - my cell phone is usually shut off because it isn't a Iphone or anything special; as for Twitter and Facebook, I don't have the time to really bother with them.)

I admit, I liked what Professor Jacobs had to say which is basically, mankind has always had distractions. Life is noisy. And heck, we can't all be reading like scholars. We can't always be reading War and Peace and The Decline of the Roman Empire. He does stress the need to read just for the sake of reading (which would probably sound better in French - like 'l'art pour l'art'). He quotes Auden and Greene and a host of other intellectuals and scientists about what reading means, why it's important, how we read, how we process words in our brain and so forth. He even looks at the medieval and ancient world, how Abbot Hugh and Machiavelli and St. Augustine read and how they approached books, what they meant.

He touched on something I found very fascinating and close to my heart, the distinction between deep reading and scanning. To be successful in university, one has to balance the two. I was good at deep reading but found it hard to jump around all the time.

Notably, he quotes Harold Bloom on the Harry Potter phenomenon which I found entertaining. Sure, Mr. Bloom says, kids are moving their eyes back and forth on the page but it's just a substitute for video games and other distractions.

But I can't give this book four or five stars. I would give it three and half. Though this isn't a beach side book it does make good bath tub reading. The major flaw is that Jacobs simply says the same thing over and over again in different ways and different parts of the book. He repeats himself and re-quotes authors to the point that I felt I was rereading previous sections. In the hands of an expert editor, this book could have been a winning essay in a larger book about literature.

On its own, this 'extended essay' has merit. The book is pleasant and to a certain degree instructive. I went away learning a bit more of what it means to read.

Growing up in a conservative Christian home, I was taught that fiction was a waste of time and that I should be very careful about what I read so that I wouldn't be seduced by error. I'm grateful that I completely ignored both of those rules. However, I used to read for information and, although I was a voracious reader and enjoyed reading, underlying my reading was always an instrumental assumption that I could use what I learned to advise others or make myself a better person. I also tend to be a person that likes to be organised in my reading - I keep lists of books I want to read and, until recently, I tended to read the next one on the list. It was difficult for me to just "randomly" pick something to read just for pleasure and just because it was of interest at the moment. And I also felt that, at some time in my life, I really needed to read all the "classics" or "great books" in the Western "canon".

Apparently, I am not alone. According to Alan Jacobs in his delightful book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction these types of approaches to "responsible" reading are widespread and part of the way we have been educated to read. But Jacobs will have none of it! He brings a breath of fresh air to reading that lifts any burden we might feel and, instead, recommends we read what we find pleasurable - without shame!

The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction is a meditative reflection on reading that avoids telling the reader what they should read. No rules here other than some guidelines about gaining the most from reading. Instead, we are to read at Whim. He writes: '... my commitment to one dominant, overarching definitive principle for reading: Read at Whim' (italics in original). 'Read what gives you delight - at least most of the time - and do so without shame.'

Jacobs is not suggesting that we do not sometimes read the so-called "great books" that require us to commit to a demanding read. But he likens those to what we might eat at an elegant restaurant - we eat sometimes but not every day. Reading at Whim cannot be the only reason we read. But it is a type of reading we need to recover.

Jacobs does distinguish between lower-case whim and upper-case Whim. The lower-case version '...is thoughtless, directionless preference that almost leads to boredom or frustration or both. But Whim is something very different: it can guide us because it is based in self-knowledge.'

Jacobs explores the difference between the two using examples from literature - demonstrating a vast richness of ancient and contemporary sources.

The idea that we can read at Whim is liberating! This book has already changed the way I read. He embraces new technologies (he has a fascinating discussion of the benefits of reading with a Kindle compared to a traditional book) and iconoclastically sweeps away a whole lot tired assumptions that make reading so burdensome for many people.

So... if you want to consider a new approach to reading that has the potential to enliven it again for you, then check out this excellent, Whimsical little book.

I read The Pleasures Of Reading In An Age Of Distraction on a plane several weeks ago. It reinvigorated my passion for the written word. In a world made smaller and faster by social media, the author reminds us of the pleasure of deep exploration of a writer's thinking, and new opportunities to share the thoughts with family, friends, members of your community. The rewards of reading books may not be better than the connection through social media, but they are very different, very personal.

A wonderful book for anyone who loves to read. C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton and Randall Jarrell were right: Read what you enjoy, not what you're told is good for you; read at Whim. But if you cease to be delighted by what you're reading, try something different. Don't feel guilty about rereading favorite books that give you pleasure. And feel free to use e-readers like the Kindle. Alan Jacobs likes them. So do I.

Jacobs eschews reading lists and encourages others to do the same. I still like Adler's "How to Read a Book" because it has good advice on how to read certain types of literature (it is rather bad at fiction). However, it is the canonical lists of books that bothered me and it still does. Who is to say this is the best of the best that influenced Western Civilization?

Jacobs, on the other hand, recommends reading at a whim. He gives some advice, but basically he suggest using whim or serendipity to pick your books. I agree. Sometimes a title jumps out me for the half-price table at a bookstore. Sometimes I read an author because another author I liked, liked the author. I read "Phantastes" because C. s. Lewis loved it. Any true reader will recognize a kindred spirit in reading Jacob's books. He gives some suggestions to improve your reading list, but he recognizes trash or at least your kind of trash, has a place. He also emphasizes reading doesn't necessarily make you a better person; it may or may not change you, but that is not the point: pleasure is the point and that is enough.

He likes a Kindle or an e-reader because it encourages straight-line reading. He recommends putting down a book if your interest is flagging and trusting whimsy to help pick the book back up at a later time when you are more prepared to read it.

In summary, Jacobs has a self-deprecating sense of humor and he writes with wit. He quotes W. H. Auden, Machiavelli, and other lesser known writers extensively. He is only relating his experiences in reading and how he chooses books to read. He hopes you can learn from his experiences and hopes his book would be fun to read. He succeeds in achieving both goals.

This book is a pleasure to read. It contains so much information that one can learn something from any page. The book itself is written like a novel, that one can go from cover to cover. There is a stark absence of a Table of Contents. One can literally read this book at whim. This book while is about reading in an age of distraction is multidisciplinary as well. It touches on cognitive learning, on technology, psychology, social sciences, literature, spirituality, inspiration, and many others. It encourages one to read hyperactively as well as concentrate, in solitude as well as in good company, in silence as well as reading aloud. Ultimately, it aims to take the stress and tensions of conquering the book, and substitute it with the joy and delight of simply enjoying the book.

Jacobs does not overestimate the virtues of concentrated reading. Neither does he undermine the benefits of scattered reading. He does a good job in keeping all of these reading tendencies as nice reading bedfellows. This book is a useful corrective to those of us overly critical of the technological distractions around us. Perhaps, we can be encouraged to read another book soon, regardless of medium. It is a lot of fun to read Jacobs's confession of his reading struggles amid the many distractions. He demonstrates once again, that once we can overcome the fear of reading, it is not only good for reading per se, reading at whim can help us read well.

Perhaps, another title for this book is: "The Joy of Reading in the 21st Century."

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade