What we talk about when we talk about books : the history and future of reading
Price, Leah2019
Books, Manuscripts
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Around 2000, people began to believe that books were on verge of extinction. Their obsolescence, in turn, was expected to doom the habits of mind that longform print had once prompted: the capacity to follow a demanding idea from start to finish, to look beyond the day's news, or even just to be alone. The 'death of the book' is an anxiety that has spawned a thousand jeremiads about the dumbing down of American culture, the ever-shorter attention spans of our children, the collapse of civilised discourse. All of these anxieties rely on the idea of a golden age, when children and adults alike sat quietly for long stretches reading edifying literature that improved our minds and souls. Literature professor Leah Price wanted to believe that. But as a historian of the book she began to wonder if our current digital discontents were stirring up nostalgia for a past that had never existed.
Main title:
Author:
Price, Leah, author
Edition:
First edition.
Imprint:
New York : Basic Books, 2019.
Collation:
214 pages ; 22 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9780465042685 (hbk)
Dewey class:
028
LC class:
Z1003
Local class:
028
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
2538161