December 2008
questioning cultural artifacts →
Some years ago I came across a document called “Seventy-Six Reasonable Questions to Ask about Any Technology.” If you follow that link you’ll see the questions attributed to the late Jacques…
Frum and literature →
David Frum makes a familiar argument in several parts:
1) “Literature is a declining presence in our modern society.”
2) “What happens all too often in high school and college literary classes…
Is this the worst photograph ever made? →
the seminar on reading →
When the new semester begins at Wheaton College, where I teach, I’ll lead a seminar for senior English majors on the experience of reading. I’m interested in getting them to explore with me their…
too much of a good thing? →
I guess even reading is a bad habit if our outgoing President is the one doing it.
“In San Francisco, the city and county board of supervisors unanimously declared...”
– Father Richard John Neuhaus, drawing on the work of Jon Shields
“The Rev. Chrispin Oneko, hanging up his vestments after leading one of his first...”
– NYT
natural signs →
In an earlier post I linked to this excerpt from Albert Borgmann’s extraordinary book Holding On To Reality, and I want to invoke Borgmann again now. One of the key concerns of that book is to…
“Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous...”
– Matthew Parris in the Times of London
“The patch of ground in the imposing row of mountains is surrounded by 300 square...”
– the Guardian
book buying →
David Streitfeld has a curious essay in the NYT about bad times for the publishing industry — publishers not buying new books, bookstores closing — and his preferred explanation for the troubles: …
“We can show the hopelessness of single-issue causes and single-issue movements...”
– Wendell Berry, via Tim O’Reilly
“We fall in love, we drink hard, we run to and fro upon the earth like frightened...”
– Robert Louis Stevenson, quoted here
my most memorable reading experiences of 2008 →
“‘A liberal arts education is not a tool like a hoe … or an electric...”
– Ginia Bellafante on Phyllis McGinley
The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.
His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne’er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.
For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
‘Tis found in...
fast-twitch and slow-twitch →
Okay, so in an earlier post I argued that we live in an Age of Reading, an age in which more people than ever before are reading various kinds of signs (many of them textual) all the time. I also…
a Christmas Eve thought →
From G. K. Chesterton:
There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes, as I am doing in this article. It is the very essence of a festival…
scrolls and codexes →
Several commentators — and by the way, I am thrilled by the quality of comments this blog has received in its short life — several commentators have asked how the issues I’ve raised so far affect…
the age of reading →
In January of 2008 Steve Jobs, the head of Apple Computer, was interviewed by reporters from the New York Times, and while Jobs was primarily interested in celebrating Apple’s newest products, he…
“I pray good beef and I pray good beer
This holy night of all the year,
But I...”
– Hilaire Belloc. Amen. I’ll return after Christmas.
2008: the year the e-book caught on? →
Gregory Cowles:
Whatever else it’s remembered for in the publishing industry, 2008 may be remembered as the year that e-books finally caught on. Kindles are a regular sight on my train these…
empty books →
Sam Kean on a visit to a shop in Venice:
I approached the owner and asked about the shelves of leather-bound books. Though all of them (the books) were blank, they looked like the sort of…
“Some geologists believe human impact on the planet is so strong it warrants...”
– the Technium
form and content →
Jeremy C writes below, “Doesn’t having a uniform page layout for all the books on the device focus your attention, not on the layout/design, but on the content?” Great question. I think the answer…
revenue →
Writing below about the now-defunct web services Stikkit and I Want Sandy, I remarked that, as far as I could tell, Rael Dornfest and the other makers of those services never even tried to come up…
“Jesus, Jesus, rest your head.
You has got a manger bed.
All the evil folk on...”
on typography →
To my mind, the single biggest flaw of the Kindle may be summed up in a single word: typography. The Kindle has one typeface, which means that very page of every book looks precisely the same. For…
dialogue redux →
religions and dialogue (by me) →
Tim O’Reilly loves Twitter →
Here. Once I realized that the only thing I liked about Facebook was the status updates, and that Twitter is simply status updates without all the other garbage, I deleted my Facebook account and…
a common thread →
Just in case it’s not obvious, there is at least one common thread in these recent posts about how I read and how I write: Distraction is the enemy. Yeah, I know, you think you’re a master of…
“‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about...”
– Wendell Jamieson in the NYT
“Anita Silvey encountered a librarian just before the announcement of this...”
– Here. The Newberys have become consistently awful. Matt Frost is right when he says that the Caldecotts, for younger children, are much more reliable.
end of an era →
This is perhaps slightly off-topic for this blog, but — caveat lector — I have a certain susceptibility to the Cult of Mac, so I might do this kind of thing from time to time. John Gruber, the most…
three theses for disputation →
1) The future of reference works will be online, because research requires the aggregation and association of divergent pieces of information. For dictionaries and encyclopedias of all sorts, there…
what to write with →
Before the Kindle came along, I wasn’t looking for it — I wasn’t in search of a new set of tools for reading. I was (and still am!) happy with books and with the tactics I have developed over the…
“A recovery of Milton’s importance entails challenging two major...”
– Theo Hobson
