The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time [Hardcover]

David L. Ulin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 12, 2010

Reading is a revolutionary act, an act of engagement in a culture that wants us to disengage. In The Lost Art of Reading, David L. Ulin asks a number of timely questions - why is literature important? What does it offer, especially now? Blending commentary with memoir, Ulin addresses the importance of the simple act of reading in an increasingly digital culture. Reading a book, flipping through hard pages, or shuffling them on screen - it doesn't matter. The key is the act of reading, and it's seriousness and depth. Ulin emphasizes the importance of reflection and pause allowed by stopping to read a book, and the accompanying focus required to let the mind run free in a world that is not one's own. Are we willing to risk our collective interest in contemplation, nuanced thinking, and empathy? Far from preaching to the choir, The Lost Art of Reading is a call to arms, or rather, to pages.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Expanding on a 2009 essay, Ulin, former book review editor of the Los Angeles Times, addresses the act of reading and its place in our information overloaded age. Ulin relies mainly on his own experiences as a loyal reader--specifically a recent attempt to reread The Great Gatsby alongside his son Noah's high school English class--which goes devastatingly wrong ("You'd fail if you were in my class," Noah pronounces). Ulin uses this incident to frame the larger narrative, fluently addressing the art and craft of literature, the reader's participation, the writer and the writing--and the act of rereading. He addresses in greater depth distractions from reading, specifically the ever-present seductions of technology, and the experience of reading on a screen. Moving toward an optimistic note, Ulin argues that technology can enlarge us, citing Rick Moody and Jennifer Egan as writers who embrace this ever-changing landscape. Ulin's short book not only puts forth a strong and passionate case for reading but also compiles a reading list of writers and critics (e.g., Anne Fadiman, Joan Didion, David Shields) who have influenced Ulin and who are well worth reading. (Nov.) (c)
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From Booklist

As the media focus on the business of e-books, ardent readers ponder the effects electronic devices are having on what and how we read and the viability of literary culture. Ulin, book critic at the Los Angeles Times, confesses to his own changed reading habits as he partakes of “the instant gratifications of the information stream” in this thoughtful, candid, and gratifyingly balanced inquiry. He writes with surpassing eloquence and insight about what books have meant to him since childhood, his son’s reading of The Great Gatsby and his own rereading of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, and how books “serve as a collective soul, a memory bank, bigger than mere commerce.” Quoting Thomas Paine, Kerouac, Vonnegut, and Didion, Ulin is wisely open-minded in his grappling with the growing complexity and attendant ambiguity of our changing approaches to writing and reading, creating a genuinely reflective and resonant chapter in the story of the book. And his closing vision of a “quiet revolution” in which reading “is an act of resistance in a landscape of distraction” is most inspiriting. --Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books; 1ST edition (October 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570616701
• ISBN-13: 978-1570616709
• Product Dimensions: 4.7 x 0.6 x 7.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Books & Reading > General

More About the Author

David L. Ulin is book critic, and former book editor, of the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of "The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time," "Labyrinth," and "The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith," selected as a best book of 2004 by the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle.

He is also the editor of three anthologies: "Another City: Writing from Los Angeles," "Cape Cod Noir," and the Library of America's "Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology," which won a 2002 California Book Award. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, Black Clock, Columbia Journalism Review, and on National Public Radio's All Things Considered.

He was awarded a 2010 Southern California Independent Booksellers Association/Glenn Goldman Book Award for his work on "Los Angeles: Portrait of a City."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars GOOD WRITING; GOOD NARRATIVE; LIFE-AFFIRMING November 27, 2010

By G. Charles Steiner

Format:Hardcover

For readers who care about where we're all going in this mad-media world of Internet highways and smart technology, this book is a necessary pit stop for refueling and refreshment.

Only 151 pages long, this totally chapterless work can be read in a sitting of three hours (as if it were one single, long paragraph), and it will not disappoint. The book is subtitled: Why Books Matter In a Distracted Time. One of the main and positive features of this work for me was the fact that the author, already a well-known critic for the "Los Angeles Times," confesses to a feeling lately (say, over the last two years) of being unable to concentrate and wonders, if it's not Alzheimer's or incipient old age, just what is happening to his brain. I completely identified with that situation and concern even though I, unlike the author, do not own a Blackberry or a Kindle. I am, just as the author describes himself-- as well as of nearly everyone today -- averse to tuning out the "buzz" that's on the Internet and in the media and am on the computer at work as well as at home.

David Ulin doesn't like to categorize books by way of fiction or non-fiction, personal or objective. He simply aims for and enjoys what is simply called "good writing." In this manner, the tale he unfolds here is both factual, literary, historical as well as personal, some vignettes touchingly involving his son, Noah. Suffice it to say Mr. Ulin has some trenchant observations to make not only about "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald but about Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" as well -- not to overlook the many writers he pulls up from the stream of words he so deftly pursues such that any reader will feel tempted to follow-up on those authors and works that are completely new to her or him....

Having covered a lot of ground that feels like "everything" that can be said about technology versus the book -- but actually isn't -- the author asserts that what reading good writing does for the reader -- unlike any other kind of technology -- is disconnect the reader from the harried noisy world of present storms and present crises and trivia and immerse her or him in a world transcending present time with others from previous ages, a world that facilitates empathy, blurring the boundaries between yourself and another, while allowing one's thoughts to gather some gravitas in the silence that follows from long bouts of concentration on the written word. He insists we need silence more than ever now. It's a kind of Wordsworthian plaint -- the world is too much with us. But he reminds us there's a solution: read good writing in the silence whenever you can.

One of the roads not undertaken in this multi-streamed river of a book full of consideration about the pros and cons of the traditional book versus electronic technology was audio book technology or the Read-to-Me feature available in many e-books -- and the cultural impact of a renewed orality about the printed word. Mr. Ulin evokes ideas about a "conversation that began in Mesopotamia ten thousand years ago," but seems to have forgotten Homer's oral impact in the process, concentrating on print and writing instead. While he tries to pluck the harp optimistically for the positive contributions of electronic media, Mr. Ulin, understandably in my opinion, argues finally to keep the art of reading books alive. I still want to know would his argument finally remain with books if he had considered the electronic orality of texts -- or paid any attention to them.

All in all, this was definitely a good read and a good piece of writing. It contains, as I've said, mentionings of writers and books I'm going to enjoy exploring further. I was so glad to find Mr. Ulin mention the writer Vardis Fisher, even if it was through a quotation by Frank Connor. As Mr. Ulin knows, good books have good writing and artfully put the reader in a "flow state" or trance from which she or he makes a self, and Vardis Fisher was just one of those writers for me. Mr. Ullin has, among others, Alexander Trocchi. Who? Read "The Lost Art of Reading" or read Trocchi's "Cain's Book." The point is -- read, in silence, good writing. Read more ›

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bookworms Unite! November 28, 2010

By wogan TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

David Ulin expands an essay he had written on the status of reading in our world. He is correct, in that the electronic world is demanding. We tend to answer email and clear them away, e mails and messages of all sorts grow at an exponential rate. He also admits that literature does not have the influence it once did. So he muses on the place of reading and books today. Those of us that are unrepentant readers can identify with his descriptions of rooms of books, books as an escape, carrying them everywhere to read during waiting times.

He defines in many ways the purpose of books, the reading of them. There are other thoughts in here, musings on the 2008 elections, his son's assignment to read The Great Gatsby..
His thoughts on blogs, the internet, electronic comments and cyberspace and the change in books- e-books and I pods are included. He points out that kindle is private, no one can share the book unless you loan out your apparatus and not even you can stand in front of your book collection and peruse your titles. The new is not condemned, it just is not embraced wholeheartedly.

So join the revolution of the written page. This little book will make a great gift or a recollection to yourself of what reading is in this world. This book is a love poem to reading, books and the readers among us.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Thesis, Meandering Argument February 27, 2012

By las cosas

Format:Hardcover

Ulin is a well known author who has edited several books on Los Angeles, particularly writings about the city, and has for many years been a book critic for the LA Times. He is a professional reviewer and writer who depends upon readers for his livelihood., and lately that readership is hard to find and engage. One need look no further than the pathetic decrease in size and importance of the book review department at the LA Times during the period Mr. Ulin has worked at the paper (which is certainly not his fault). It is thus somewhat courageous for the author to admit that he sympathizes with the distractions faced by people in our culture, including himself and his son. The rapid pace of internet provided information is addictive, and particularly for his son's generation, seems the norm. Why bother reading a book?

What purpose does The Great Gatsby and other works of literature serve in this warp speed world in which we live? Any reader of today will find that an interesting premise, particularly since it seems less and less people are interested in novels. We want an articulate advocate to explain the importance of literature, the reading equivalent of a slow food advocate. From reading various reviews of this book, many people think this book accomplishes the task. I don't.

The storyline that serves as the background for the inquiry is his son's disinterest in reading, and in particular his grumbling about the assignment to read The Great Gatsby. In order to help his son he decides to reread the book, and by the end of the book has done this, returning to his son with his insights and passions to share.... But his son's problem from the beginning wasn't reading the book, it was the requirement that he interrupt his reading to annotate the book using certain pre-set criteria dictated by the teacher. This is not a problem of distraction, this is the age old problem of high school English teachers ruining the joy of reading by intellectualizing it to death. And when the author wants to share his passion for Gatsby, his son isn't interested. He doesn't need the help, he's got it figured out. That a high school student feels the goal of reading literature is to "figure it out" is at least as sad as the unwillingness of people to slow down sufficiently to read a book.

I also found his argument for reading too meandering, too filled with personal stories. One problem with the internet is that it is too easy to wander off subject, to flit on the surface of endless topics. It is thus ironic that this book suffers from the same problem. A discussion of authors important to Ulin leads to his discussion of Alexander Trocchi and the book then veers off to a rambling remembrance of a trip to London and Trocchi's book store. This and other personal remembrances add nothing to the argument of this book, and as with internet searches, the surface enjoyment of the excursion distracts from the impact of what was originally being researched. A book arguing the importance of reading as a commitment of time undisturbed by distractions isn't helped by tons of distracting anecdotes. Read more ›

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Succinct but rich February 28, 2011

By William Timothy Lukeman TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Here's a thoughtful, sometimes troubling essay about the pleasures of traditional reading, which seems to be in danger of being lost. Oh, there are still some who read actual books; but more & more, many prefer their reading material delivered digitally. And many ask, "Well, what's the difference? People are still reading, aren't they?"

David Ulin, while not entirely dismissing the digital out of hand, makes a very strong case that there is indeed a difference. Some of what he offers is factual, some of it anecdotal; but above all else, it's deeply personal, as he explains why reading in depth matters so much to him. And by extension, why it should matter equally as much to the rest of us.

What he's getting at here, it seems to me, is the notion of reading as a sort of sacred space, set apart from the demands & distractions of the everyday world. It's a space that's intensely private, a place of engagement between the reader & the written, where the individual mind (and perhaps soul) is shaped by the encounter with words, images & ideas. The book is presented as a separate world of its own, a construct made out of the writer's own life experience, education & psyche, into which the reader enters & is changed ... presumably for the better.

Here's where the doubts about the digital come in, as we consider just how many distractions are available to the online or plugged-in reader. We tell ourselves that we can multitask without any loss of focus or understanding -- we may even tell ourselves that we get more out of reading that way -- but the evidence for that seems to be lacking. A place apart from the everyday world is getting harder to find as the digital invades everything -- often quite willingly invited in, let's be honest!... Yet it's in that place apart that we can truly become individuals, or at least the sort of people we once defined as civilized & reasonably whole human beings.

The true danger of the digital lies in its very ease & ubiquity, I would think. With everything so readily available, with the capacity to continuously leap from one thing to another in a second, anything of depth must necessarily be flattened out, presented as being of equal worth (or non-worth) as the most trivial factoid. It's almost the Gresham's Law of Reading: bad (or empty) content drives out good.

Is this a fair assessment, though? My own feeling is that it's all too accurate. Whether or not you agree, Ulin will make you think about what you read & how you read it. At the very least, you won't take reading for granted after you finish the last page of this worthy little book. Most highly recommended! Read more ›