Mortimer Adler on Active Reading: 4 Questions You Need to Ask a Book (Plus an Age-Old Recipe for a Good Night’s Sleep)

“Get into bed in a comfortable position, make sure the light is inadequate enough to cause a slight eyestrain, choose a book that is either terribly difficult or terribly boring … and you will be asleep in a few minutes,” writes Mortimer Adler (December 28, 1902-June 28, 2001) in his famous manual How to Read … Read more

Spiritual Journaling: Christina Baldwin on Bridging Our Inner and Outer World Through Writing

“We call spirituality a journey and speak in metaphors of travel, yet many of us never leave the neighborhood. The journal becomes the metaphor made real, a travelogue of the mind,” Christina Baldwin writes in the opening chapter of her book Life’s Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Practice. “On days when I’m not sure … Read more

The Second Self: Sherry Turkle on The Human Spirit in a Computer Culture

“Technology catalyzes changes not only in what we do but in how we think. It changes people’s awareness of themselves, of one another, of their relationship with the world,” writes Sherry Turkle in her book The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. “The new machine that stands behind the flashing digital signal, unlike the … Read more

What Is Good for the World Will Be Good for Us: Wendell Berry on Making Our Planet a Better Place for Ourselves and Our Posterity

“It took modern humans tens of thousands of years to reach a population of seven hundred million and then we tapped into millions of years of stored energy known as fossil fuels. Our human population exploded. It increased by ten times in a mere two hundred years. Our consumption has also exploded: on average ten … Read more