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© Shane Leonard
Our lives are increasingly crowded by the instruments of distraction. Attention spans shatter under the small, steady hammer blows of tweets and text messages. Inner quiet is punctured by the latest status update, stabbed through by the breaking news alert. That device in your pocket has many apps, but only one purpose: to preoccupy your every thought.
It seems to me, in such a time, the value of the book has only increased. In an era of fragmented focus, it remains the ultimate tool of concentration. It’s a single-function device that reinforces your ability to sustain a line of thought, restores your sense of perspective, refreshes your capacity for empathy, and reboots the big engine of your imagination. In a world of gadgets designed to drown out your own inner voice with endless clamor, what could be better than this simple construction of paper and ink, engineered to give you back your own mind?
