“The Phantom Tollbooth” is not just a manifesto for learning; it is a manifesto for the liberal arts, for a liberal education, and even for the liberal-arts college. What Milo discovers is that math and literature, Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, should assume their places not under the pentagon of Purpose and Power but under the presidency of Rhyme and Reason. Learning isn’t a set of things that we know but a world that we enter.”
Norton Juster’s “The Phantom Tollbooth” at 50 : The New Yorker
This is just a really great article about a really great book.
(via ryeisenberg)(via ryeisenberg)
Copia Aims to Make Reading a Social Experience - WebNewser
Reading has always been a solitary experience, but Copia is aiming to change that with what it calls a “full-service social e-reading platform,” which allows users to create libraries, purchase digital e-books, take notes, highlight passages, share notes, and connect via Facebook, Twitter, and Copia friends.
too cool
“One of the most intriguing findings of this new science of reading is that the literate brain actually has two distinct pathways for reading. One pathway is direct and efficient, and accounts for the vast majority of reading comprehension — we see a group of letters, convert those letters into a word, and then directly grasp the word’s meaning. However, there’s also a second pathway, which we use whenever we encounter a rare and obscure word that isn’t in our mental dictionary. As a result, we’re forced to decipher the sound of the word before we can make a guess about its definition, which requires a second or two of conscious effort.”
Reading in the Brain - The Barnes & Noble Review
via thedailydish
