In Bed with the Word - Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics Order Now: Call 1-780-492-4945

more... In Bed with the Word Reading, Spirituality, and Cultural Politics In Bed with the Word addresses questions such as: When people want to pray, to worship, to marry or bury, why do they reach for a book? What is it about reading that feels like a spiritual posture? What kinds of reading go beyond being private entertainment to produce personal and social change? A work of informal literary essays on the relations between spirituality, reading, and living in the public, social world, In Bed with the Word is a timely project that calls attention to the increased importance of reading in our culture’s current transition from print-based culture to “screen culture”—in which North American children spend more time in front of a TV or computer screen than playing, sleeping, or attending school. Through story and anecdote, the book shows how the peculiar paradox of reading, which isolates the reader at the same time that it emphasizes the reader’s longing for and intimate connection with an absent other, makes it a unique and powerful spiritual exercise that is increasingly crucial in a culture of distraction and hurry. Neither a work of theology nor one of literary theory, the book is informed by these fields but is aimed at a wide audience of people who wonder about the future of reading and who care about the disciplines that sustain spiritual life, as well as about the relevance of these disciplines to daily social and political life. Contributor Daniel Coleman,  Author Daniel Coleman was born and raised in Ethiopia and came to Canada to go to college. After BEd and MA degrees from the University of Regina, and a PhD from the University of Alberta, he went on to teach Canadian and Diasporic literatures in the Department of English at McMaster University. He has written a memoir about his youth in The Scent of Eucalyptus, and in 2007 he won the Raymond Klibansky Prize for the best English-language book in the Humanities for White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada. Other books with the University of Alberta Press are: In Bed with the Word, ReCalling Early Canada, Retooling the Humanities, and Countering Displacements. www.danielcoleman.ca More titles by this Contributor ReCalling Early Canada 2005 Retooling the Humanities 2011 Countering Displacements 2012 Countering Displacements 2012 Countering Displacements 2012 In Bed with the Word 2012 In Bed with the Word 2012 Retooling the Humanities 2012 ReCalling Early Canada 2005 Countering Displacements 2012 In Bed with the Word 2009