Overview
Many of you will be on your own journeys with different books, whether slogging through War and Peace in despair at the world, leaving a copy of Sense and Sensibility on your nightstand on the off chance you can snatch a few moments before sleep overtakes you, or combing the Booker longlist (I’ve given up on that one) for your next read. Perhaps—I say with a look up at my own bookshelves—you find that books often sit untouched gathering dust and peering guilt-inducingly down at you whenever you glance in their direction during your working week. But the thing is our attention is constantly being pulled in so many different directions that we feel like we don’t have time for anything else, let alone to read for pleasure.
And yet, what if we change our attitude from an end-focused one about finishing books (which I think might be the main reason we’re not picking up David Copperfield on a typical Tuesday without putting it down hurriedly) to thinking about the benefits of slow reading. Reading, and particularly reading slowly, in a world of hyperinformation where AI promises “helpful” summaries in abundance is a countercultural act. What might we glean from savouring sentences and spending time with characters on the page that we could miss if we spend our lives scanning for information? What if we afford ourselves a little time to dwell (itself a term from the early printshop that speaks to the time spent making an impression on the page with a handpress)?
Details
We offer a space that gives you permission to spend an hour quietly (and however slowly) reading and there will be opportunities to chat about books, too, should you wish. Some of these hours will be spent on Microsoft Teams and some in-person at Wolfson to have the widest possible appeal across our community.
These sessions are open to all Wolfson members, and we'll meet on the first Wednesday of every month.
This month we will be meeting on Teams. If you would like to join, please register for the link.
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact our events team - events@wolfson.cam.ac.uk
