The Millions

Year in Reading

A Year in Reading: Jonathan Safran Foer

1. kent norton
   at 10:26 pm on December 13, 2011

   when the American Indians were in their tee pees for the night, a story teller would emerge and say, “would you like to hear a story”? and like the Greek scholars, most truths and education was told from mouth to ear in the way of stories that we could remember. music would provide another road to learning. Maybe we need to take a step back and not blame “the Google gods” for our stupidity, if it is that, but ourselves. Didn’t Lear’s spiritual adviser tell him that his faults lied in ourselves, not our stars? Everything changes our brains and creates new neurons. What we do know is that there is no such thing as “multi-tasking” a concept pushed out by industry to get people to do more for less. WE will grow and change as the culture morphs into new forms. Chief Seattle, is said to have told us “The life is a web and we are only part of it. What we do affects every other living thing”–to paraphrase. Sorry, but this is another hype book–raining doom and gloom on our parades.

2. Shana
   at 2:05 am on December 14, 2011

   I put the book on hold at my library. I have such a strong feeling that I will respond to the book as you did, Jonathan. I’ve been getting closer to setting limits for many months and your single paragraph really did it. I don’t want impatient distracted living. I don’t participate in most technology (no cell phone, no TV, etc) but I am computer-dependent. It’s only about 25% wonderful. The Millions is wonderful, the convenience of online banking, researching books and movies and music. The card catalog is gone, alas. A perfect example is that I want to get up and walk across the room to my splendid dictionary and look up words and follow one word to another, to another, to another — and not look it up online. I miss writing letters, taking my time, really thinking about the person I am writing to, wanting to say it right, getting the tone right and not stupid little yellow faces. I want significant restoration to how it was before.

3. Ian McEwan de volta à Flip e outros links | Todoprosa - VEJA.com
   at 10:25 am on December 14, 2011

   [...] sobre o que a internet está fazendo com nossos cérebros – literalmente. Estou começando a ler. Aqui (em inglês), a declaração de fã do escritor [...]

4. Why I’m No Longer Tweeting « Outside the Cave
   at 7:10 pm on February 12, 2012

   [...] December, I came across the following short piece by Jonathan Safron-Foer (whose Everything is Illuminated is one of my favorite books) in The [...]

5. Thoughts on Internet distraction, pt. 1 « bibliomanic
   at 11:01 pm on June 21, 2012

   [...] for some time before I got around to it. What gave me a sense of urgency to read it was seeing Jonathan Safran Foer’s high praise of Carr’s work. He basically called it the book of the year. The book develops [...]