What We Talk about When We Talk about Books: The History and Future of Reading (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780465042685)

Reports of the death of reading are greatly exaggerated Do you worry that you've lost patience for anything longer than a tweet? If so, you're not alone. Digital-age pundits warn that as our appetite for books dwindles, so too do the virtues in which printed, bound objects once trained us: the willpower to focus on a sustained argument, the curiosity to look beyond the day's news, the willingness to be alone. The shelves of the world's great libraries, though, tell a more complicated story. Examining the wear and tear on the books that they contain, English professor Leah Price finds scant evidence that a golden age of reading ever existed. From the dawn of mass literacy to the invention of the paperback, most readers already skimmed and multitasked. Print-era doctors even forbade the very same silent absorption now recommended as a cure for electronic addictions. The evidence that books are dying proves even scarcer. In encounters with librarians, booksellers and activists who are reinventing old ways of reading, Price offers fresh hope to bibliophiles and literature lovers alike.
Winner of the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award, 2020

Author: Leah Price
ISBN-10: 0465042686
ISBN-13: 9780465042685
Publisher: Basic Books
Language: English
Published: 08/20/2019
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.60w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/17/2019
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2019
Library Journal 07/26/2019 pg. 1
Shelf Awareness 08/23/2019
Choice 05/01/2020
BookPage 09/01/2019