Alan Jacobs Discusses Reading in an Age of Distraction

Alan Jacobs discusses The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction at the Hudson Institute on June 3, 2011.

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Alan Jacobs

Contributing Editor

Alan Jacobs, a New Atlantis contributing editor and the former author of the Text Patterns blog on TheNewAtlantis.com, is Clyde S. Kilby Chair Professor of English at Wheaton College. His most recent book is The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. He blogs at The American Conservative, he tweets as @ayjay, and his homepage is here: http://ayjay.jottit.com.


In The New Atlantis


Christianity and the Future of the Book

Number 33 ~ Fall 2011

Why Bother with Marshall McLuhan?

Number 31 ~ Spring 2011

History as Wall Art

Number 29 ~ Fall 2010

From Cursive to Cursor

Number 27 ~ Spring 2010

The Ambiguous Utopia of Iain M. Banks

Number 25 ~ Summer 2009

The Virtual Public Square

Number 24 ~ Spring 2009

Books


  • “The Book of Common Prayer”: A Biography (Princeton, 2013)
  • The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (Oxford, 2011)
  • A new critical edition of W. H. Auden’s The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue (Princeton, 2011)
  • Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant (Eerdmans, 2010)
  • Original Sin: A Cultural History (HarperOne, 2008)
  • Looking Before and After: Testimony and the Christian Life (Eerdmans, 2008)
  • The Narnian: The Imagination of C. S. Lewis (Harper, 2005)
  • Shaming the Devil: Essays in Truth-Telling (Eerdmans, 2004)
  • Must Christianity Be Violent? Reflections on History, Practice, and Theology (Brazos Press, 2003)
  • A Theology of Reading: The Hermeneutics of Love (Westview Press, 2001)
  • A Visit to Vanity Fair: Moral Essays on the Present Age (Brazos Press, 2001)
  • What Become of Wystan: Change and Continuity in Auden's Poetry (University of Arkansas, 1998)

    • Other Publications


  • “Lena Dunham's Inviolable Self,” First Things, May 2013
  • “Just-So Stories,” Books & Culture, January/February 2013
  • “Recommended Reading,” Books & Culture, January/February 2011
  • “A Prophet Wrongly Honored,” First Things, June/July 2011
  • “Overloaded,” Books & Culture, May/June 2011
  • “The Poet’s Nature Subdued,” Books & Culture, March/April 2011
  • “A Not-So-Distant Mirror,” Big Questions Online, November 18, 2010
  • “Edupunk’d,” Big Questions Online, October 19, 2010
  • “The Idea of the Book,” Books & Culture, November/December 2010
  • “The Online State of Nature,” Big Questions Online, August 30, 2010
  • “Book Cultures,” Books & Culture, July/August 2010
  • “Man of Sorrows,” Books & Culture, Jan-Feb 2010
  • “Beyond the Wild Wood,” First Things, October 2009
  • “Choose Your Own Adventure,” Books & Culture, September/October 2009
  • “Pedantic Park,” First Things, August/September 2009
  • “Blessed Are the Green of Heart,” First Things, May 2009
  • “Gardening and Governing,” Books & Culture, April 3, 2009
  • “The Way, the Truth, and Philip Jenkins,” First Things, March 2009
  • “A Religion for Atheists,” First Things, February 2009
  • “The Poet’s Prose,” Books & Culture, Jan.-Feb. 2009
  • “Do-It-Yourself Tradition,” First Things, January 2009
  • “A Classic Case,” First Things, November 2008
  • “World of Wonders,” Culture11, October 12, 2008
  • “Reading, Writing, and Reformation,” First Things, October 2008
  • “A Ne’er-Do-Well Returns,” Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2008
  • “In the Garden,” Cabinet, Fall 2008
  • “Amis Amiss,” First Things, June/July 2008
  • “The Life of Trees,” Books & Culture, July 1, 2008
  • “Too Much Faith in Faith,” Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2008
  • “Come On, You Call This a Manifesto?,” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2008
  • “A Commonplace Book,” First Things, May 2008
  • “The Conscience of an Anglican,” Books & Culture, December 24, 2007
  • “Making Trade-Offs,” Books & Culture, December 3, 2007
  • “On the Recent Publication of Kahlil Gibran’s Collected Works,” First Things, November 2007
  • “Sentences,” Books & Culture, October 8, 2007
  • “Reading the Signs,” First Things, October 2007
  • “The Future of Atheism,” Books & Culture, September 10, 2007
  • “The Youngest Brother’s Tale,” Books & Culture, September 1, 2007
  • “Overloaded,” Books & Culture, August 13, 2007
  • “Amplifying Charity,” Books & Culture, July 9, 2007
  • “Waiting for Harry,” Books & Culture, June 25, 2007
  • “Remembering Auden,” Books & Culture, June 4, 2007
  • “Jane Kramer and the Feast of St. Martin Elginbrod,” Books & Culture, May 8, 2007
  • “Serendipity,” Books & Culture, April 2, 2007
  • “Blessedly Unnecessary,” Books & Culture, March 5, 2007
  • “How to Read,” Books & Culture, March 1, 2007
  • “Some Fanged Enemy of Christendom,” Books & Culture, February 12, 2007
  • “The Know-Nothing Party,” Books & Culture, February 5, 2007
  • “In Search of Eden,” First Things, February 2007
  • “The Politics of Long Joy,” Books & Culture, January 12, 2007
  • “Graphic Violence,” Books & Culture, December 11, 2006
  • “Code Breakers,” First Things, August/September 2006
  • “Goodbye, Blog,” Books & Culture, May 1, 2006
  • “To Be a Christian College,” First Things, April 2006
  • “Choose Life,” Books & Culture, March 1, 2006
  • “Bran Flakes and Harmless Drudges,” Books & Culture, January 1, 2006
  • “The professor, the Christina, and the storyteller,” The Boston Globe, December 4, 2005
  • “Opportunity Costs,” Books & Culture, November 1, 2005
  • “City poet,” The Boston Globe, September 25, 2005
  • “Robert Alter’s Fidelity,” First Things, August/September 2005
  • “The Lord of Limit,” Books & Culture, May 1, 2004
  • “A Bible for Everyone,” First Things, December 2003
  • “Whose Natural Theology?,” Books & Culture, November 1, 2003
  • “What Narrative Theology Forgot,” First Things, August/September 2003
  • “Leon Kass and the Genesis of Wisdom,” First Things, June/July 2003
  • “The Re-Invention of Love,” Books & Culture, March 1, 2003
  • “The Virtues of Resistance,” Books & Culture, September 1, 2002
  • “Life Among the Cyber-Amish,” Books & Culture, July 1, 2002
  • “Computer Control,” Books & Culture, May 1, 2002
  • “Shame the Devil,” Books & Culture, March 1, 2002
  • “C. S. Lewis Then and Now,” First Things, March 2002
  • “Wole Soyinka’s Outrage,” Books & Culture, November 1, 2001
  • “Auden and the Limits of Poetry,” First Things, August/September 2001
  • “Narrating Ethics,” First Things, May 2001
  • “In Brief,” Books & Culture, January 1, 2001
  • “The Only Honest Man,” Books & Culture, May 1, 2000
  • “George Eliot: Good without God,” First Things, April 2000
  • “Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (1941),” First Things, March 2000
  • “Review Essay: Preachers without Poetry,” First Things, August/September 1999
  • “The Liberal Neoplantonist?,” First Things, January 1999
  • “The Editor and the Exile,” Books & Culture, November 1, 1998
  • “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” Books & Culture, May 1, 1998
  • “Revenge of the Scroll,” Books & Culture, January 1, 1998
  • “Only Connect,” First Things, November 1997
  • “The Bible Tells Me So,” First Things, October 1997
  • “A Bible Fit for Children,” First Things, May 1997
  • “In on the Kill,” First Things, February 1997
  • “Flags, Tradition, and Charity,” First Things, November 1996
  • “Martha Nussbaum, Poets’ Defender,” First Things, October 1996
  • “Dowsing in Scripture,” First Things, October 1995
  • “Go(o)d in Iris Murdoch,” First Things, February 1995
  • “Signs and Wonders,” First Things, December 1993
  • “Life’s Value,” First Things, August/September 1993
  • “To Read and to Live,” First Things, June/July 1993
  • “Friendship and Its Discontents,” First Things, December 1992
  • “Suya Wars,” First Things, May 1992
  • “Salman Rushdie Gets Religion,” First Things, January 1992
  • “Aristocrats at Bay,” First Things, August/September 1991
  • “David Byrne and the Curse of ‘Lifestyle,’” First Things, January 1991