Book Report: “The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction” by Alan Jacobs

So many books, so little time

Honestly, the worst part of reading a book for me is the end. Not necessarily because I am enjoying it so much that I don’t want it to be over. Nope, because now I have to decide what to read next.

For stressed-out people like me this poses quite a problem. My days on earth are numbered, and I have a limited and declining number of books to read before I kick the bucket. So many books, so little time. A book is an investment of time and energy, and the opportunity cost of reading one book is not reading another, potentially more valuable, work. What book do I choose next? I don’t want to get stuck reading a 600-page tome that I don’t like but don’t have the courage to quit. (I am a fastidiously loyal reader—to a fault.) I have literally wasted days back-and-forthing between books.

I knew I needed some guidance. So when I saw Alan Jacob’s “The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction” (Oxford University Press 2011), I picked it right up--and without angst, too. I knew it must be next.

It was worth it, and more helpful than I expected. Jacob’s first and most important bit of advice, “Read at Whim,” challenges the experts who have mandated lists of classics that any truly intelligent person should, in their scholarly opinion, read before dying. Fooey! he writes. Reading should be fun: “Read what gives you delight—at least most of the time—and do so without shame.” So many people want to read great books but don’t actually want to really read them. They want to have read them, crossing them off their list and telling their friends they did. That’s not reading. That’s impressing your friends. (I am more than guilty of this. Forgive me, Father.)

But that’s just the first bit. Beyond that, “The Pleasures of Reading” is filled with helpful advice for we who love books but aren’t sure if we’re doing it right. And there are plenty of us. Jacobs insists that reading is not a lost art as some Chicken Littles insist. Barnes and Noble and Amazon are doing fine. At the same time, it will never be the wide-spread shared cultural experience your local librarian hopes it will be. It never has been. On top of that, this “reading class” may contract further as more of us struggle to read with brains that are not conditioned to do so, and too many other things to do. The digital age is full of distractions, and fewer of us can actually sit down to read for any more than a few minutes. Even then, our eyes may just be scanning the page with limited comprehension.

Certain “reading tools” can help, here. Jacobs swears by the ease of his Kindle, which (ironically, as it were) has rescued his modern brain from the apparent distractedness of turning pages. But reading well will always take discipline, as it should. These days it is more important to read “slowly, slowly,” and without distraction. Put your cell phone away, on the other side of the room. Write comments in the margins, if it won’t interrupt the flow. But most importantly, read (mostly) what you love to read, which is the best way to keep reading. If you read a book you love, do something crazy: READ IT AGAIN! You’ll get something different out of it, remember it better, and tell you brain that the joy of reading is more important than crossing the next book off your list.

Reading this way will help us become the sort of people who are capable of deep thinking, again. In our increasingly shallow and distracted age, the world needs us. Sure, civilization will surely find a way to get along led by lovely folks with hyperactive brains rewired by digital media. People who don’t read books have minds that work just fine. All is not lost. But the world will also and always need its readers.

-MRH (1/10/2020)