. . . a bleepin’ KINDLE . As Susan McWilliams observes, it amounts to a techno-surrender of “readerly independence” with no obvious benefit. I’m glad I don’t live on some agrarian frontier where all I have around the house are Shakespeare and the Bible (both very good!) in expensive, irreplaceable editions. I’m all for the technology that has made books really, really cheap—so cheap that I typically buy these days rather than mess with interlibrary loan. If they’re almost giving real books away, why mess with the machine? (Of course—I said similar bad things about my GPS machine, which turns out to have been a wonderful gift that actually makes me, the traveler, more bold and sort of self-reliant, if also stupider. It keeps MEN from having to do what they most hate—asking a real person for directions.)
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
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