The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

by Alan Jacobs

But it’s at this moment, with no one ordering him or expecting him to do any such thing, he randomly picks up and decides to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Then he moves on to Great Expectations. And so, belatedly, haltingly, accidentally, and quite implausibly and incredibly, it began at last: my education. I wasn’t sure what it would get me, whose approval it might win, or how long it might take to complete (forever, I had an inkling), but for once those weren’t my first concerns. Alone in my room, congested and exhausted, I forgot my obsession with self-advancement. I wanted to lose myself. I wanted to read. Instead of filling in the blanks, I wanted to be a blank and be filled in. He concludes, “I wanted to find out what others thought.” For the first time in his life, Walter Kirn was reading at whim. And it’s never too late to begin this new life as a free reader.