Alan Jacobs, English prof at Wheaton College in suburban Chicago (where I went to grad school and where, if you're ever giving a graduation commencement address, you need to distinguish from the school of the same name in Massachusetts) is one of my favorite writers. His newest book, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, is on my short list of titles I most want to read.
Jacobs, an immensely wide read and greatly learned man, spurns the idea of must read great books. As the title of his latest book shows, books should be read not only for personal education or making us "cultured" (a word that surely no one who actually fits the description would actually use) but for the simple pleasure of reading. Check out this speech.
Alan Jacobs discusses 'The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction' from The New Atlantis on Vimeo.
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