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Traces earlier revolutions in the history of reading to orient our shift to the digital age
Considered one of the greatest inventions of human civilization, writing has served as a pathway to culture and education through history. The digital revolution has ushered in a dramatic transformation, leading to growing concern over the effects and possible detriments of algorithms, information overload, and fake news. In Reading Matters, Joel Halldorf makes the case that in order to navigate the upheavals of the digital age, we must understand prior technical revolutions and the transformations they engendered. He shows how our ways of reading are inseparable from the media we use, and that the decline of deep, attentive reading may be the most serious consequence of our move from page to screen.
Originally published in Swedish in 2023, this newly revised volume presents a sweeping history of transformations in reading and writing, tracing precedents in the invention of writing, the shift from clay tablets to papyrus and from scrolls to codices, the advent of printing, and the development of industrial printing. It explores how each new format of writing has encouraged new ways to think, relate, and organize the world. Essentially, it is not only what we read that is important, but how we read.
Moving through key historical events including the rise of Christianity, the scientific revolution, and the development of democracy, Halldorf explores how changes in the physical book reflected major cultural and historical shifts of the time. By tracing how new media forms have impacted human attention, authority, and community, the volume equips readers to better understand our own digital habits today. Detailing the riveting cultural history of reading technologies, book revolutions, and cultural upheavals, Reading Matters showcases the massive power of reading, writing, and books in helping us understand who we are.
A comprehensive, thought-provoking overview of how reading technology impacts the very fabric of society.
A thoughtful, engaging, humane, and hopeful read about the value of books. Halldorf weaves together his sources in ways that spark new insights and connections.
— Alan Jacobs, author of How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds
This is a brilliant book which shows that something essential is at stake when books are threatened by small screens.
— Thomas Hylland Eriksen, author of Tyranny of the Moment
I cannot recall another Scandinavian book that offers deeper insight into what it means to read—and why reading matters.
— Tom Egil Hverven i Klassekampen
Reading Matters is a marvelous book: engaging, scholarly and accessible, a sweeping account of cultural history that allows us to better understand contemporary times. Joel Halldorf traces the history of reading from the time of Jesus to the present, showing us how transformations in reading and writing change who we are and the way we think....What we need now, according to Halldorf, is to once again learn how to read more deeply and more reflectively in our frenzied digital age....This book will help you understand why, and how they can do so again.
— Peter Wehner, Senior Fellow, the Trinity Forum, and Contributing Writer, The New York Times and The Atlantic