once again, I clicked the notification to read as soon as I saw (which speaks what you wrote about being plugged in 24/7). But as an editor at a publishing company and someone who is passionate about books and libraries, I could talk about this topic forever.
Social media and internet scrolling has maybe made me feel more “informed” but my critical thinking has taken a huge hit. I find myself relying on comment sections to see if what I think about a video is confirmed in the comments, and when it’s not I’m tempted to change my own thoughts. Books and reading really are an act of rebellion against the dumbing down of myself. Thanks for the reminder Alex.
Yes!!!!! Bring back the book club, women in circle, discovering and gathering and sharing direct revelation and speaking to books as they speak to their lives 🌷 also, I'm sure I'm not the only one wanting to see your spiritual wisdom-meets matriarchy collection.
This is a mini-masterpiece!!! As a mom and avid reader this truly struck a chord - keep sharing your brilliant insight with us, you are doing meaningful work Alex!!
Hey Al, this is fantastic. You should be so proud of yourself putting these original and important thoughts out there. This discourse is essential right now. Just wanted to say that we are packing to move soon, and I had been planning on parting with my collection of books on pregnancy, natural birthing, and midwifery. This piece made me realize that these books, my own little library, hold an incredible amount of wisdom (that is getting harder to find online…) — they are sacred and should be kept for my girls to have when they’re ready. Who knows if they will even be in print by then? Alternative health books are becoming harder to track down — I wonder why that is? Books are time capsules at the very least, and sacred keepers of original thinking and wisdom at best. Keep sharing your wisdom :)
I echo everything being said — this beautifully crafted article needs to be seen far and wide! I have been an avid reader since childhood and am grateful to be raising boys following in my path. It gets harder with age, as they are now distracted teens, but I continue to model; when they see the joy I have in reading (and pitching my own book, a fashion essay collection, for others to read!) they revert back.
I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones - my childhood circumstances led me to reading as an escape to explore other worlds (esp Harry Potter :). I took in pause in college but now am still a big reader. For a while it was more of a challenge to see how many I could read but then realized I wasn’t taking any information in - so now I’m just going slow and steady.
Would love to know the last 4 books you read and the top 10 books you’d recommend everyone read!
There is also that wisdom in books (ebooks or normal ones) is kind of curated: it has a long list of people going over it. People with good knowledge of writing, of the topic that is written about, editors, publishers, etc etc. A sort of curation happens here to make sure a certain quality is reached. It is a much slower process. While anybody can upload a video on tiktok. It just a totally different thing.
My parents surrounded us with books when we were little and my mom always fueled our love for reading with buying books before going on a 'car holiday'.
But i also very much realize that having books in your home, and growing up with them is actually a privilege. And even if you cannot afford a lot of books as parents, you would still need to learn your child the love of reading trough maybe going to the library, loaning books, returning them in time, etc. Or learn the kid the love of being informed, of searching for wisdom, of learning to really understand something, delving into it. And learning the critical eye to search for the right quality of books too.
And if it wasnt learned to you and you dont have interest, the love of reading goes probably more lost indeed.
I am also reminded of the fact that the arrival of the smartphone (and then especially when the affordable smartphone arrived) it opened up information for everybody everywere in the world, even people with otherwise no access to information, while (printed) books and expensive laptops were/are still only for the privileged.
But there are also youngsters who still acknowledge the importance of reading! F.e in Antwerp there is a young guy who started an initiative to have youngsters read more, to share his love for reading and why it is so important. (his insta is limba_reads, there is also a good article of him in dutch https://www.iedereenleest.be/over-lezen/reeks/de-leeswereld-van-will-limba-moleka).
Love this post! As I got back into reading during my 18month mat leave and now I'm at a point of reading the thickest book I've read so far in life:) where I live in BC Canada, within the past year or so the government decided it is illegal for any news to be on social media. News companies have no longer been able to show news on ig stories, etc. I think this move has definitely been making a lot of the society ignorant to what is really going on in the world, and making it so much easier for government control! I did stop reading during high-school as I didn't enjoy or understand the books we read back then, plus my grades for English classes were not impressive. On top of that, intimidating teachers make me want to read less. I also started nursing school so having had to read textbooks took out the fun. Now, I love reading!! It is my hobby and learning so much from historical fiction genre as it talks about topics the public do not share. My 3 year old daughter does not care about reading but that's okay :) we never do bedtime routines with reading because she can't stand staying on one page for more than a second.
once again, I clicked the notification to read as soon as I saw (which speaks what you wrote about being plugged in 24/7). But as an editor at a publishing company and someone who is passionate about books and libraries, I could talk about this topic forever.
Social media and internet scrolling has maybe made me feel more “informed” but my critical thinking has taken a huge hit. I find myself relying on comment sections to see if what I think about a video is confirmed in the comments, and when it’s not I’m tempted to change my own thoughts. Books and reading really are an act of rebellion against the dumbing down of myself. Thanks for the reminder Alex.
Ok ok - this piece should be published and spread far and wide. You are bang on.
Yes!!!!! Bring back the book club, women in circle, discovering and gathering and sharing direct revelation and speaking to books as they speak to their lives 🌷 also, I'm sure I'm not the only one wanting to see your spiritual wisdom-meets matriarchy collection.
This is a mini-masterpiece!!! As a mom and avid reader this truly struck a chord - keep sharing your brilliant insight with us, you are doing meaningful work Alex!!
Hey Al, this is fantastic. You should be so proud of yourself putting these original and important thoughts out there. This discourse is essential right now. Just wanted to say that we are packing to move soon, and I had been planning on parting with my collection of books on pregnancy, natural birthing, and midwifery. This piece made me realize that these books, my own little library, hold an incredible amount of wisdom (that is getting harder to find online…) — they are sacred and should be kept for my girls to have when they’re ready. Who knows if they will even be in print by then? Alternative health books are becoming harder to track down — I wonder why that is? Books are time capsules at the very least, and sacred keepers of original thinking and wisdom at best. Keep sharing your wisdom :)
I echo everything being said — this beautifully crafted article needs to be seen far and wide! I have been an avid reader since childhood and am grateful to be raising boys following in my path. It gets harder with age, as they are now distracted teens, but I continue to model; when they see the joy I have in reading (and pitching my own book, a fashion essay collection, for others to read!) they revert back.
I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones - my childhood circumstances led me to reading as an escape to explore other worlds (esp Harry Potter :). I took in pause in college but now am still a big reader. For a while it was more of a challenge to see how many I could read but then realized I wasn’t taking any information in - so now I’m just going slow and steady.
Would love to know the last 4 books you read and the top 10 books you’d recommend everyone read!
Thank you for this article!!!
There is also that wisdom in books (ebooks or normal ones) is kind of curated: it has a long list of people going over it. People with good knowledge of writing, of the topic that is written about, editors, publishers, etc etc. A sort of curation happens here to make sure a certain quality is reached. It is a much slower process. While anybody can upload a video on tiktok. It just a totally different thing.
My parents surrounded us with books when we were little and my mom always fueled our love for reading with buying books before going on a 'car holiday'.
But i also very much realize that having books in your home, and growing up with them is actually a privilege. And even if you cannot afford a lot of books as parents, you would still need to learn your child the love of reading trough maybe going to the library, loaning books, returning them in time, etc. Or learn the kid the love of being informed, of searching for wisdom, of learning to really understand something, delving into it. And learning the critical eye to search for the right quality of books too.
And if it wasnt learned to you and you dont have interest, the love of reading goes probably more lost indeed.
I am also reminded of the fact that the arrival of the smartphone (and then especially when the affordable smartphone arrived) it opened up information for everybody everywere in the world, even people with otherwise no access to information, while (printed) books and expensive laptops were/are still only for the privileged.
But there are also youngsters who still acknowledge the importance of reading! F.e in Antwerp there is a young guy who started an initiative to have youngsters read more, to share his love for reading and why it is so important. (his insta is limba_reads, there is also a good article of him in dutch https://www.iedereenleest.be/over-lezen/reeks/de-leeswereld-van-will-limba-moleka).
Love this post! As I got back into reading during my 18month mat leave and now I'm at a point of reading the thickest book I've read so far in life:) where I live in BC Canada, within the past year or so the government decided it is illegal for any news to be on social media. News companies have no longer been able to show news on ig stories, etc. I think this move has definitely been making a lot of the society ignorant to what is really going on in the world, and making it so much easier for government control! I did stop reading during high-school as I didn't enjoy or understand the books we read back then, plus my grades for English classes were not impressive. On top of that, intimidating teachers make me want to read less. I also started nursing school so having had to read textbooks took out the fun. Now, I love reading!! It is my hobby and learning so much from historical fiction genre as it talks about topics the public do not share. My 3 year old daughter does not care about reading but that's okay :) we never do bedtime routines with reading because she can't stand staying on one page for more than a second.