Stop What You're Doing And Read This!

A mission statement about the transformative power of reading; about the way it inspires us, the tangible impact it can have on our wellbeing, the importance it holds for us now and will continue to hold in the future.

A strong argument for making "reading more" one of your new Year's Resolutions

Not having enough time to read is a common complaint. But as this collection of essays by ten committed bibliophiles attempts to show, reading should be an activity as regular as brushing your teeth

Ebullient... Subtle... Inspiring and impassioned... This advocacy for intense reading is punchy and sharp

A delightful collection of essays from luminaries of the book world... Some are personal, some political, but all are passionate

In any 24 hours there might be sleeping, eating, kids, parents, friends, lovers, work, school, travel, deadlines, emails, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter, the news, the TV, Playstation, music, movies, sport, responsibilities, passions, desires, dreams. 
 
Why should you stop what you're doing and read a book? 
 
People have always needed stories. We need literature - novels, poetry - because we need to make sense of our lives, test our depths, understand our joys and discover what humans are capable of. Great books can provide companionship when we are lonely or peacefulness in the midst of an overcrowded daily life. Reading provides a unique kind of pleasure and no-one should live without it. 
 
In the ten essays in this book some of our finest authors and passionate advocates from the worlds of science, publishing, technology and social enterprise tell us about the experience of reading, why access to books should never be taken forgranted, how reading transforms our brains, and how literature can save lives. In any 24 hours there are so many demands on your time and attention - make books one of them. 
 
Carmen Callil Tim Parks 
Nicholas Carr Michael Rosen 
Jane Davis Zadie Smith 
Mark Haddon Jeanette Winterson 
Blake Morrison Dr Maryanne Wolf &amp; Dr Mirit Barzillai

Nicholas Carr

Nicholas Carr is among the most lucid, thoughtful and necessary thinkers alive. The Glass Cage should be required reading for everyone with a phone

Written with restrained objectivity, The Glass Cage is nevertheless as scary as any sci-fi thriller could be

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Nicholas Carr is the rare thinker who understands that technological progress is both essential and worrying. The Glass Cage is a call for technology that complements our human capabilities, rather than replacing them

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody

A very necessary book, that we ignore at our peril. I read it without putting it down

Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary

Brings a much-needed humanistic perspective to the wider issues of automation … a persuasive … wide-ranging book

Elegantly persuasive … In his thoughtful, non-strident way, he is simply pointing out that the cost of automation may be far higher than we have realised

Excellent … beautifully written … Put down your phone, take off your Google Glass and read this

A valuable corrective to the belief that technology will cure all ills, and a passionate plea to keep machines the servants of humans, not the other way round

Carr argues, very convincingly, that automation is eroding our memory while simultaneously creating a complacency within us that will diminish our ability to gain new skills … I had always wondered if it were possible Google Maps was ruining my sense of direction. Now I am certain of it

Fascinating …  With digital technology today we are roughly at the stage we were with the car in the 1950s – dazzled by its possibilities and unwilling to think seriously about its costs … [this] nuanced account … is very good

Who is it serving, this technology, asks Carr. Us? Or the companies that make billions from it? Billions that have shown no evidence of trickling down … It’s hard not to read the chapter on lethal autonomous robots – technology that already exists – without thinking of the perpetual warfare of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

An eye-opening exposé of how automation is altering our ability to solve problems, forge memories and acquire skills

Who Needs Humans Anyway

In The Glass Cage, Pulitzer Prize nominee and bestselling author Nicholas Carr shows how the most important decisions of our lives are now being made by machines and the radical effect this is having on our ability to learn and solve problems. 
 
In May 2009 an Airbus A330 passenger jet equipped with the latest ‘glass cockpit’ controls plummeted 30,000 feet into the Atlantic. The reason for the crash: the autopilot had routinely switched itself off. In fact, automation is everywhere – from the thermostat in our homes and the GPS in our phones to the algorithms of High Frequency Trading and self-driving cars. We now use it to diagnose patients, educate children, evaluate criminal evidence and fight wars. But psychological studies show that we perform best when fully involved in a task, while the principle of automation – that humans are inefficient – is self-fulfilling. The glass cockpit is becoming a glass cage. 
 
In this utterly engrossing exposé, bestselling writer Nicholas Carr reveals how automation is affecting our ability to solve problems, forge memories and acquire skills. Rather than rejecting technology, Carr argues that we must urgently rethink its role in our lives, using it to enhance rather than diminish the extraordinary abilities that make us human.

Nicholas Carr

Praise for The Glass Cage

Nicholas Carr is among the most lucid, thoughtful and necessary thinkers alive. The Glass Cage should be required reading for everyone with a phone

Written with restrained objectivity, The Glass Cage is nevertheless as scary as any sci-fi thriller could be

Nicholas Carr is the rare thinker who understands that technological progress is both essential and worrying. The Glass Cage is a call for technology that complements our human capabilities, rather than repla ...

Nicholas Carr is among the most lucid, thoughtful and necessary thinkers alive. The Glass Cage should be required reading for everyone with a phone

Written with restrained objectivity, The Glass Cage is nevertheless as scary as any sci-fi thriller could be

Nicholas Carr is the rare thinker who understands that technological progress is both essential and worrying. The Glass Cage is a call for technology that complements our human capabilities, rather than repla ...

Nicholas Carr is among the most lucid, thoughtful and necessary thinkers alive. The Glass Cage should be required reading for everyone with a phone

Written with restrained objectivity, The Glass Cage is nevertheless as scary as any sci-fi thriller could be

Nicholas Carr is the rare thinker who understands that technological progress is both essential and worrying. The Glass Cage is a call for technology that complements our human capabilities, rather than repla ...

Books by Nicholas Carr

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