The Lost Art of Reading: Books and Resistance in a Troubled Time

David L. Ulin
The Lost Art of Reading: Books and Resistance in a Troubled Time
(Sasquatch Books, September 2018)

“Reading is a revolutionary act” as Ulin writes in this compelling series of essays about why books and stories are the most effective way to crack open the universe and communicate.

In his original enormously popular essay from 2010, Ulin dissected the impact of digital technology on modern culture and the difficulty of ignoring the siren call of Twitter and email, smart phones and Instagram. In these new essays, he writes about our pulled apart culture and how it is important to find a narrative that speaks to hope rather than fear. A blend of memoir and criticism, he writes about the collapse of a communal narrative and why making room for silence and stillness in our 24/7 world is crucial. He celebrates the joys of a life of reading and why art and reading provide the best version of shared experience and is a form of revolt in these dangerous times. Like Rebecca Solnit’s Hope in the Dark or Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, The Lost Art of Reading is about resistance, right now.

Praise for The Lost Art of Reading

“I was electrified by his celebration of narrative and startling insights.”
—Joe Hill, author of The Fireman

“Ulin has found a powerful and instructive form of resistance in his lifelong love of books…. A necessary and deeply human read.”
—Claire Dederer, author of Love and Trouble

“Refreshing, fortifying and consoling, Lost Art is a heartfelt meditation, packed with so many first-rate apercus I used up a lot of highlighter…a small jewel of a treatise.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“A manifesto that argues for reading to defy ‘encroachment of the buzz.’ Ulin uses his customary insight to reflect on coming of age as a reader.”
—Chicago Tribune

“Ulin’s book is the act of criticism—both cultural and literary—that makes one want to read. He reminds us that the currency of ideas is always open to us if we put in the effort, and that the moments of enlightenment, of transcendence that we might gain from literature are part of what makes a life worth living.”
—Biblioklept

“Ulin explores the importance of the stolen moment, the quiet solitude provided by reading a book, and the ways in which our lives are shaped and enriched by reading…Though highly informational, the book reads similar to a novel; with poignancy and humor, Ulin retells his own experiences from his reading-centered youth….A phenomenal piece that will inspire anyone to immediately pick up another book to read.”
—World Literature Today

Read David L. Ulin’s interview with Literary Hub where he talks “Tristram Shandy, Zadie Smith, and the Fiction of Apocalypse”

David L. Ulin is the former Book Critic for the Los Angeles Times. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, his other books include: Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, shortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay; Labyrinth; and The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith, which was selected as a best book of the year by the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is also the editor of three anthologies, and his writing has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times, Bookforum, The Paris Review, Zyzzyva, and on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.