by Sarah Statz Cords
Has everyone seen this article, titled, very eye-catchingly (to me, at least) “Read More Books!,” by Kevin Drum?* Posted at the Mother Jones site, it’s another short but provocative argument for why books, even in our hyperconnected information world, might still hold value.
Drum addresses the argument that has been made for online sources enabling readers to follow issues in real-time, which may indeed be valuable, but he also suggests that sometimes, for understanding the big picture of an issue and for gaining the most beneficial information in the shortest possible time, books still can’t be beat:
“A few hours spent with a carefully constructed book, on the other hand, can change the way you think about something by showing you history, context, and all the non-sexy stuff — in other words, all the messy complexity — in a single package that you absorb all at once.”
I don’t have any big questions for you today. I just thought that paragraph, and Drum’s last line (“So: read more books! They’re good for you.”) were kind of inspirational thoughts heading into the weekend. I myself haven’t had much luck the last couple of weeks finding books that changed the way I think–but I’m still hopeful one that will is just around the corner.
*Thanks to Tripp at Books Are My Only Friends for the link.
