Books and Reading

Sharing the books you read with others can be an intimate invitation into your brain — what you are drawn to, what you think about, and the life experiences that shaped those interests and thoughts. Even a book chosen based solemnly on aesthetics or its cultural context is still a choice that says something about its owner, or at the very least, co... See more

Over the next three decades, scholars and fans, aided by computational algorithms, will knit together the books of the world into a single networked literature. A reader will be able to generate a social graph of an idea, or a timeline of a concept, or a networked map of influence for any notion in the library. We’ll come to understand that no work

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“The point of books is to combat loneliness” — David Foster Wallace

Here’s Kevin Kelly, futurist and Wired founder and brilliant, brilliant man, pondering the future of the book: Over the next century, scholars and fans, aided by computational algorithms, will knit together the books of the world into a single networked literature. A reader will be able to generate a social graph of an idea, or a timeline of a conc... See more

A quote from Japanese author and Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenko way back in 1330(!) on the value of reading books:

“It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met.”