Project Gutenberg 2008-08-14 Public domain in the USA. 305 Lee, Gerald Stanley 1862 1944 The Lost Art of Reading Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Lost Art of Reading" by Gerald Stanley Lee is a reflective essay written in the early 20th century. The work explores the profound disconnect between modern civilization and the true nature and purpose of reading. Lee laments how contemporary society's hurried lifestyle impedes individuals from engaging deeply with literature and understanding its transformative power. At the start of the book, the author introduces a dialogue illustrating the rush of modern life, where individuals passively engage with superficial aspects of existence, such as reading hurriedly without truly absorbing the material. Lee critiques this "reading madness," which leads to a pervasive sense of disconnection from one’s inner self and the world. He discusses the limitations imposed by civilization on genuine thought and engagement, emphasizing the necessity for individuals to reclaim a thoughtful, soul-nourishing approach to reading that encourages contemplation rather than mere consumption. The opening sets the stage for a broader critique of educational and societal norms that stifle imagination and self-discovery. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 64.0 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read. en Books and reading Z Text Browsing: Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/Reference Browsing: Teaching & Education Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches 722557 2025-06-11T04:46:05.329581 text/html 721012 2008-08-14T06:28:06 text/html; charset=utf-8 771833 2008-08-14T06:29:40 text/html; charset=utf-8 application/zip 872542 2025-06-11T04:46:19.560493 application/epub+zip 877905 2025-06-11T04:46:10.139559 application/epub+zip 342996 2025-06-11T04:46:07.774573 application/epub+zip 1053462 2025-06-11T04:46:26.002439 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 990964 2025-06-11T04:46:17.488517 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 475702 2022-09-12T08:48:13.360284 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 605992 2025-06-11T04:46:04.213561 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 605810 2008-08-14T06:27:36 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 219930 2008-08-14T06:29:40 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 605834 2008-08-14T06:28:58 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 219872 2008-08-14T06:29:40 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 20098 2025-06-11T04:46:26.171446 application/rdf+xml 13127 2025-06-11T04:46:08.365530 image/jpeg 3780 2025-06-11T04:46:08.075530 image/jpeg 840283 2025-06-11T04:46:05.429560 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia