FROM THE EDITOR Does anyone make New Year’s resolutions any more? I know there are many devotees of the “to-do” list and more ambitious types actually set periodic goals. But the resolution seems to have become more of a joke than a serious tradition. Nonetheless, the quiet early months of the New Year can be a time for rethinking and reassessing what we do, why we do it, and how our lives can be better. Just before the holidays, I was on a trip that—for several reasons—made it impossible for me to use a device that had become almost an extra appendage. Having neglected to buy the right wi-fi plan for the ship we were on, I could no longer connect for texting, e-mail, calls, browsing, or networking. My iPhone was reduced to a single function—a portable clock. And it worked pretty well for that purpose. Without the phone as a distraction, I had to find other ways to occupy myself. We live in a culture where silence is difficult to find, but turning off a smartphone silences a lot of the noise that involves us on a minute-by-minute basis. No longer enveloped in my digital universe, I looked around more, walked around more, and—most rewardingly—read more books. From what I hear, people still find time to read books. According to a recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts, 16.8 million more American adults read fiction in 2008 than had the year before, with eighteen-to-twenty-four-year-olds leading the increase. This is indeed heartening news, as literary reading had declined in previous years. A well-read population is good news for anyone in a profession that produces printed matter. Even though I’m once more happily connected to my indispensible device, in 2010 I plan to be one of the American adults who continues to read more. Happy New Year, and thank you for reading Spree. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top