AUTHOR: Leland Ryken and Glenda Faye Mathes
PUBLISHER: Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021, (304 pages).
When was the last time anyone of us has read a book? From cover to cover? Not many. Does this mean that we have lost the art of reading? Possibly. As far as reading is concerned, most of us, if not all would agree that we all read. The difference is mainly about how we read. In this captivating book about how reading has been lost in a new culture, authors Leland Ryken and Glenda Faye Mathes argue that the kind of reading that we have been doing in the past is now basically lost. People no longer read books. They skim articles. The browse social media. They glance at headlines. They peruse selectively. The art of reading is lost. What they are saying is that we no longer read with delight but as a duty. With the rise of electronic media, traditional books have been digitized. So do our reading habits. A simple test would be this: "What books have you read recently?" Surveys have shown that many wanted to read more but are actually not doing it. Not a single age group who say they read, do so for more than an hour daily. Yet, people spend nearly six hours per day on digital media, mostly cursory reading! A more challenging test would be to read Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in its entirety. The problems are many. Hyperlinks tempt one to click to go to other sites. Pop-up windows distract. Attentiveness is divided. Digital media are changing our brains. From brain researchers to literary artists, experts are seeing the demise of reading. Plus, our minds get so infatuated with the present that we lose touch with the past. We lose touch with essential human experience. We also lose touch with the beauty of literary art. On and on, the authors give us a compelling case of a growing non-reading phenomenon. They believe that this would lead to a loss of our "mental sharpness, verbal skills, and ability to think and imagine," and many more.
One wonders how a simple act of reading or non-reading could result in such literary calamity. Ryken and Mathes explain this in two ways. First, they decry the declining rate of real attentive reading due to both external and internal factors. Externally, it is the rise of a constant stream of information that floods our minds. Such a stream subconsciously makes us exchange quantity for quality. These have also altered our reading habits from attentive reading to selective cursory scanning. Internally, we have become more impatient in a "Too-Long-Didn't-Read" (TLDR) culture. Part Two of the book in itself is a wonderful reference on how to read stories, poems, novels, fantasies, children's books, creative non-fiction, and the Bible. They alone are worth the price of the book.
My Thoughts
The authors observe that reading nowadays has been changed in many ways, especially with the rising use of digital media. We read differently. We don't read as deeply as before. Before we start panicking about the state of literacy in our society, the problem described by Ryken and Mathes needs to be qualified. There are many who don't read in pre-millenial times. Even before the ubiquitous internet environment, how many people have even read "War and Peace," the so-called litmus test for literary appreciation? My point is, while the observations made by the authors are true, they are true mainly for those categories of people who appreciate literature. This includes literature professors, students, enthusiasts, poets, writers, reviewers, and authors at large. Of course, there are those who had the potential to become literature lovers but technology sort of diverted their interest away. Apart from these enthusiasts or would-be devoted readers, the rest of the population simply don't have time to read, let alone study literature. Perhaps, the group that would be most impacted would be kids. I concur with the observation by the psychologist, Richard Freed who warns about the way technology companies entice children away from traditional forms of reading through attention-grabbing strategies that substitute long-term attentive reading with short-term visual gratification. This might lead to a general decline in proper literature appreciation in the next generation. I suppose this is where the book's warning is most needed. For digital natives, this would be an introduction to a new way of attentive reading. The authors' section in Part Two would give this group ample fodder for learning how to read stories, poems, novels, fantasy, and other books with a keen reader's eye. This is to help them "recover" a part of meaningful reading that might be potentially lost to the digital distractions. For digital immigrants, this should be a wake-up call to pause and take stock of our reading habits before it gets any worse. It is never too late to change. This is where Parts Two and Three of the book should apply. Part Two helps recover the beauty of reading literary works while Part Three reminds us of the treasures that are waiting to be discovered. They are participants of the stories waiting to be told.I must say that this is a beautiful book in itself. Despite the early warnings of a collapsing literature culture, the authors are convinced and convicted about the possibility of redemption. They champion the need for literature through thoughtful explanations and critical arguments. They remind us about the beauty of literary art, poems, fiction, and even children's books! For the Christian, reading literature enhances our ability to read the Bible. In our increasingly scientific and technological world, we are tempted to see things as problems to be solved. We read books so as to solve certain issues or to mine information. Books are more than that. They are meant also to be enjoyed. Likewise, the Bible is to be enjoyed through reading and study. Moreover, there are several different genres in the Bible, many of them require some skills that we can learn from this book. How do we recover the lost art of reading? If in doubt, pick up this book and read it. It's not only educational, but it is also enlightening. I believe that once enlightened, the reader would go beyond recovery to become contributors too.
Leland Ryken (PhD, University of Oregon) served as professor of English at Wheaton College for nearly fifty years. He has authored or edited over fifty books, including The Word of God in English and A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible. He is a frequent speaker at the Evangelical Theological Society’s annual meetings and served as literary stylist for the English Standard Version Bible.
Leland Ryken (PhD, University of Oregon) served as professor of English at Wheaton College for nearly fifty years. He has authored or edited over fifty books, including The Word of God in English and A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible. He is a frequent speaker at the Evangelical Theological Society’s annual meetings and served as literary stylist for the English Standard Version Bible.
Glenda Faye Mathes (BLS, University of Iowa) is a
professional writer with a passion for literary excellence. She has authored over a thousand articles and several nonfiction books as well as the Matthew in the Middle fiction series. Glenda has been the featured speaker at women's conferences and at seminars for prison inmates.
Rating: 5 stars of 5.
conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
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