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Books and the Future of Civilisation live from How The Light Gets In

Books and the Future of Civilisation live from How The Light Gets In

Nick Spencer is joined by Johanna Thomas–Corr, David Shariatmadari and Juliet Mabey live at How The Light Gets In Festival. 22/10/2024

We are emerging from the so–called “Gutenberg Parenthesis”, the 500 years in which the printed word dominated society, and embracing a new age of screens, images, and tweets. Or so it is claimed. Reading remains popular, however, and the printed book has rallied of late.

What’s going on? Might the dominance of the book, indeed of the written word, be coming to an end? Or is it the only medium capable of handling the complexities of human reason and imagination? And how much does any of this matter?

In a live recording at the How the Light Gets in festival in London, Nick Spencer discusses the future of books and reading with Times literary critic Johanna Thomas–Corr, Guardian literary editor David Shariatmadari and editorial director of Oneworld Publications Juliet Mabey.

 


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Nick Spencer

Nick Spencer

Nick is Senior Fellow at Theos. He is the author of a number of books and reports, including Magisteria: the entangled histories of science and religion (Oneworld, 2023), The Political Samaritan: how power hijacked a parable (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Evolution of the West (SPCK, 2016) and Atheists: The Origin of the Species (Bloomsbury, 2014). He is host of the podcast Reading Our Times.

Watch, listen to or read more from Nick Spencer

Posted 22 October 2024

Books, Podcast, Reading Our Times

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