the athletes had on one target and long pants so my mom was like i don't know what it is but a waiter tried out and that's how i started fencing. my mom signed me up for lesson. she found this fencing club which really turned out not to be a club. it was this guy's garage and he was like the maestro or premier coach in our town and my dad

took me to my first lesson and we came home and my dad was like no, we are not doing this because it was foreign and weird and there was this random guy garage teaching me on offense and my dad was like absolutely not. [laughter] but, i also being resourceful like my mom went online and googled like the top 10 schools in the country and now had fencing teams. i'm from a large family, one of five kids as you will read in the book. my dad is a retired tech event my mom a retired teacher so i had to be revoked-- resourceful how to pay for school, so i saw the top 10 schools had fencing teams and i'm like i'm doing this so it was a means to an end in the beginning. >> wow. did you come to love it? >> i'm not sure if i ever loved the fencing. i don't know. i guess i question a lot and i can't say i'm ever loved it. there are parts about the sport

have grown affinity for and for me always been really drawn to the people. i was head over heels for my high school fencing team. i mean, we were winning all the time and it's easy to be happy when you are winning. we had up the entire time i was on the team. i think we won almost every state championship with really good energy and everyone was supportive whether you are on the strip actually providing tangible wins for the team where you were a chill leader on the sidelines. my first year i was just sharing-- during my teammates on then, after high school or at some point in high school i discovered the nonprofit fencing in new york city which really has become more family than anything and a lot of that has to do with just nurturing environment as it's created.

i discovered the foundation at 16. someone told me there were black people that fenced in new york city and i was like that's offensive, but i googled it and found them and that's how i joined them. it was really out of necessity. i feel like i needed to be around people who look like me in order to grow in the sport. it's hard to have that sensation being off to the side and labeled as difference dna and day out-- day in and day out. >> thank you. as you know, both my kids since. my son is 10 and my daughter who is here is 16. it's very rare in their fencing club to be of color and i know one thing you talk about in the book is when you get to the us team and people think you kind

of split in and anyone who knows about fencing knows it's a very intellectual sport as well as physical sports, but i would like you to talk a bit about that experience and about making the team, your feelings about making the olympic team and what she went in with and what you came away with. >> so, i qualified for my first team in 2010, i believe. when i graduated from college i graduated from duke in 2007 and had a hard time finding a job. at the same time i was still part of the westford foundation, so i was training and i somehow or another convinced my parents to help me pay for a world cup and i remember taking like a look at team usa fencing team and to me it wasn't diverse enough and that i didn't see

someone who look like me and even with the woman's saber team there had never been a woman of color on the team before, so i was going against what everyone around me was telling me. i was 23 when i went for my first international competition. i had no world ranking, no national ranking. i had never had a senior competition before. i graduated from college, so there were a lot of naysayers around me telling me it was impossible that an olympic team was in my future because i had never been on a could jet or junior team that i don't have the tactical training or skills to ever make a national teamwork qualify for ludwig team, so a lot of i feel like my journey as an athlete is kind of about challenging with the people around me think about me and i feel like society has to put you in a box even within the fencing

community. there's an idea that people who xls kids are thought of as olympic hopefuls and kids that don't have a spot on the cadet engineer teams are the ones that want to make it that they will follow as if they don't have the skill set to make it. there's also not a layer of-- i don't know exactly what to call it, but to be difference in a sport that is predominately white is difficult. there's a lot of pushback and even wanting me to occupy that space, so on the national team there is a lot of commentary around the team that never included me even while it was on the team. i was seen more as a placeholder than anything else and there is almost like a hopeful rhetoric that somehow i would not qualify the next year imagine having to

carry that baggage every single competition every single year and compete and i think that a lot of athletes of color who are in similar situations as i was experienced that where you feel that pressure to be exceptional to be accepted. >> and similar stuff happened in terms of trying to occupy that space in getting up pushback so what would you say to young people who are athletes now especially young girls who maybe haven't-- maybe are feeling less or a that they are getting pigeonholed in some sort of way? >> i think if there is something to be said to be strong and confident in yourself and not rely on people around you to encourage you and motivate you i know for a really long time i felt like i needed my sister and i needed my mom every single

moment i was sad or felt these struggles especially while on team usa and at some point i started to rely on myself. i didn't allow these negative words coming from the national coach or coming from teammates, some of my training partners to affect how i felt about myself and that was a conscious effort. i do consciously tell myself which i call it mohammed ali mantra. i'm amazing. on great. going to do this. it was on the strip, off the strip, in competition, out of competition and it was saying it out loud feeding myself this energy because i felt like i constantly had to contradict the things i was hearing around me and i didn't want even subconsciously to affect how i felt about myself. >> so smart.

i don't know if anyone has gone online and see new fence, but if you haven't you must because you are magic. you completely defy gravity. you are beautiful. >> why are you so nice? >> mi lying. i would watch these videos and i like screaming because unlike you have to watch this. >> when i came home from the olympics i had people who i don't know who do nothing about fencing who watched the games and asked me about the commentary they heard at the olympic games and like what was that guy's problem what did he he like about your fencing? what didn't you like about you? i know there were commentary at the games and i never got good vibes from him and it's funny you say you love to watch me fence and i felt like throughout my career i combated this notion that as a black athlete all it can bring to the table is strength.

i don't know how to fence tactically, when my strongest things is my sense of timing and i have been told your points are lucky. that is something i heard throughout my career is that somehow i have been writing this read-- wave of luck and to be black in fencing and to not only go to the olympic for team usa but to metal, there is nothing lucky about that. [applause]. >> so true. it is so true. do you want to talk about writing? lets talk about the writing process. at what point did you decide you would write "proud" and what was it like? >> to be honest i never thought about writing a book. when the idea kind of came about to tell my story i was like wait

a second this has to happen; like? because i think that if i were a kid and i had read a story of like struggle and triumph in all these obstacles-- obstacles and thought was possible to come out on top i think it would have changed the way i saw myself and perceived my future so i thought it was necessary especially in this moment, but i also didn't realize it would be so hard like i wish someone had told me how difficult it would even. i felt like lori who helped me write the book is awesome and it felt so therapeutic to talk to her and talk to my story and to unpack these moments throughout my career that i think they happened and they feel like kind of blips on the radar, speed bumps and hurdles and mountains you have to climb and through having a strong faith and believing in my purpose in

having faith in god i know i have been able to overcome things that i have seen a lot of people not make it out of especially in this sports as people of color and religious minorities, but to be honest they did not know it would be so hard. i don't know why a thought writing 300 pages would be so easy, but it's definitely difficult and to me it's also timely like everything about my journey felt timely imminent-- even from the time i qualified on the team. on around this discussion of zero tolerance, these videos like police brutality by black people losing their lives in just challenge these things with existing as myself to challenge these misconceptions people have about people who look like me and to dispel these different stereotypes and change the narrative felt timely to write it. >> it is so timely.

i think i'm going to ask three more questions before we opened it up for the audience because i feel like i'm hogging you. i think about the black community and mental health a lot and the kind of stigma that we have-- you know i think also white communities have it as well and i remember being in college and my sport was track and we would get to our competition and we would be throwing up and everyone is sick literally losing it and when i read about in the team and actually getting someone who you could talk to i thought about what a difference that would have made for me as a young person because therapy was not on the radar. on his like you go to the track meet. you get sick. you lose and repeated again the next are the next week, but

let's talk about mental health and the fatigue you help-- felt because it sounds like the fatigue was a reaction and also a reaction to being so tired of having to do so much more work than the other athletes, not only around the court, but around race and identity in all of that. i was experiencing this paralyzing-- i didn't even know exactly what that meant. i knew was it was go time. i spent hours and hours almost 24 hours trying to get to this world cup after training for the last few months and preparing for this world cup. i would get there in the morning of i would wake up after going to sleep relatively early, having a great-- eating well, getting a good night sleep and i would wake up really tired and i would get to the fencing hall,

to the venue and i would be so tired and i couldn't explain the fatigue like i couldn't understand why when i got on the strip my feet felt like a lead and i could not move or lunch or do anything i was losing in the first round. this is that like baby trying to make the national team. this is like number six, seven in the world and i couldn't figure out why going out in the first round of competition and it just so happened-- i don't remember why we had a team psychologist all of a sudden. i know that i personally was dealing-- we had just won a world championship and not felt like a lot of pressure. will champion on the strip all of a sudden in our team was having issues and whenever we lost it was always my fault, believe it or not according to the coach anyway. so, i felt like i-- i felt this frustration and i was succumbing to that pressure mentally and in talking to the sports

psychologist she helps me kind of talk myself off the legend and i remember having conversations with no one else other than my sister and my mom about the sadness i was feeling and it wasn't just in fencing. i was dealing with overwhelming sadness and i couldn't explain it and like i love my parents so much, but my parents were trying to say you have to pray more and i know a lot of muslims will contest to this like if you pray on time this won't happen to you [laughter] for me it wasn't as simple as just praying more. there is something to be said for like you said addressing sadness and depression and anxiety within not just the muslim community, the black community. there is stigma around mental issues that for whatever reason we don't discuss it and for me i didn't even know i needed to ask for help. my asking for help was like mom,

what i do because everyone's mom is a doctor saws like mom what i do. my mom was like you have to pray and i'm like okay mom that's not it. thankfully, spore psychologist was their healthy figure out in its trial and error. having to, you know, go to local competitions to fence with kids to try to work your way and iron out these creases of anxiety. i literally had to figure it out and so much of my life changed when not just i started to go through these mohammed ali montrose on the strip, i was always reciting from the quran like immediately i felt like heavy breathing i was experiencing all of panic attack , but then also i would-- i kind of chose happiness. i decided i was no longer going to allow my teammates and make coaches to dictate how i felt about myself.

that was something i did not get from a sports psychologist. i feel like i just-- they like i had this epiphany and i arrived at this moment in my life and i feel like i took control of my emotions. i was like i'm not going to give you that power to make me feel inadequate as an athlete, to feel inadequate as a person like i'm not going to give you that power over me and i made this conscious decision and i was like i'm happy. people who don't like you like hate that. >> best ammunition for haters. to as questions. talk about visiting the border, california. i know that was early july. >> so, if you weeks ago i went with revolve impact in a nonprofit that i cofounded called athletes for impact and we went to the border. you know, this mission to try to understand what's going on and like all of us were confused.

we were like horrified and then you're also like what can i do to help and for me the best way to understand what was going on was to see it like firsthand and that came in the form of visiting the us mexico border which i have been to before. it's kind of bizarre to see because there are two fences, the mexican fence in the us fence and there's a space in between. in this federal property you have i think it's called friendship park where 10 or 20 people something like that from either side us and mexico side can visit their family members for a few minutes and it's kind of interesting to see this huge massive like walls that are there and i'm seeing them years ago so when i hear about we need to build a wall unlike how high

is it going if it's already there. then, to also learn about who is being detained, who is separated and i think there are a lot of misconceptions about what's going on. i think most of us when you think about the family's been separated we think of latinos in particular and there are so many caribbean's, semi- black people who also experienced the same team. there are a lot of nonprofits i met with when i was there. there was a nonprofit that predominantly somali immigrants, one with haitian immigrants and to hear about the way haitians get to the united states the of the us border is to take a boat from haiti to brazil and to walk for two back five months from brazil up to the mexico border, so it's heart-wrenching to understand the length people go to to risk their lives to fully domestic violence, flea wars, to

get a better life and for us to turn people away or two you know rip peoples children from their arms for them to never see them again is heartbreaking. i think what each of us can do is try to learn more and see what we can do and also vote. that is something simple everyone can do. >> think you. i was going to ask what we can do and even answered it, so i think now, we can ask the audience if they have any questions, but you are phenomenal. thank you. thank you. there is a microphone coming around a women question here in front and if you could just tell us your name. >> good evening. i'm a little nervous. my name is gil davis carter and we are un partners and i have to tell you i just love you. >> thank you. >> you are so straightforward

and i'm a fellow december baby to, so we are straightforward, but what i loved about what you shared about the differences of people that are still the same and i have two questions. when you went to the border, because i notice there were people-- to people who flew the entire wall of the border in mexico and some places where there is no wall and broken fences and you can kind of walk through the pond across from each other. did you experience any of that and did you experience what people are dealing with right there on site as you are watching it unfold? the second thing is being a woman of color and fencing and doing the work you're doing, what is that your biggest challenge to overcome specifically? >> can everyone hear the questions in the back? okay. >> the biggest challenge to overcome, there's like--

>> what has been when you have overcome like your biggest challenge. >> i'm not sure what stereotypical challenge would be , but i know that like there was some point in my career where i made this decision that i'm not going to continue to play myself or feel the pressure to do that. i feel that is put on a lot of minorities to somehow or another try to make yourself more acceptable in some way. i feel like hey, we are the same we are so much alike and i feel like when i was younger my earlier moments on team usa i kind of felt that like there's a sensation or there is this feeling that my teammates feel that i'm different from them so let me try to help, you know, is limited to dealing with a muslim or show them like black women aren't super aggressive come all

the stereotypes people have about as unlike let me you know try to help them interact with people who look like me and in a more meaningful normal way as opposed to them thinking to me as other. like, i mean, i can't even tell you that things people have said these are people who i have been on teams with four years of not one team, not to teams like eight teams. they've asked me like what country are your parents from. it's like we've known each other forever and we fence together on team usa like where would they be from? [laughter] to ask of someone like you know in the middle of of a team dinner like do you have your magic carpet to go pray, like things like that are the crazy experiences that i have had and at some point i went through phases where i feel like i tried to-- it was like i want to be

accepted by them because they are teammates and for me when you make the team is going to be like we are going to be together , you know. we are going to win together and you're looking for that inclusive space, but as you know fencing is individual first and then it's team, so there are very few spots to qualify for team usa and when i tell you it's a dog eat dog environment to get there, there are people who literally hope you have broken your foot to get there so they can pass you and that's the energy i felt for eight years straight. so, i went to the border. i don't even remember the name of the city, but it literally is where the ocean like you see the ocean. dc the fence kind of trail off for like a quarter mile into the, so i didn't come across any part of the fence that was broken or like an interruption in the fence.

>> good to see you. good to be here. i the question about interactions you have had with other athletes from around the world from the states the course of your journey and what take what you got from now or was there any comfort or positive energy that came from that? i'm just curious how it might have been for you. >> i think i thence other muslim fencers like only a world championships when people from maybe the smaller countries or countries that don't have the larger delegations like maybe egypt artemisia shall appear there's a sense of sisterhood or brotherhood or unity when there is a muslim out the way black athlete, i can tell you that like all of the black team usa

fencers are friends with all of the black french fencers like this unspoken like we are kind of related, we hope we are but we are not energy that you feel when it comes to black athletes and fencing. i'm not, i mean, just aside from us all be like one of you on our team there is that sense of friendship. one french fencer i'm close to his-- she's half algerian and she's also black and, i mean, we have been friends. when i first met her and now she speaks like three words of english. we have been friends for years and is literally just because we have this sense of friendship, but also this kind of family sisterhood that stems from both having you know like arabic last names like you know muslim family and also be the only two black girl fencing in a 200% tournament.

i don't know about other sports, i mean, i have friends who like riding a track or play in the nfl or nba. that's different because the disparity isn't there like it is and fencing. >> hi, my name is edith richards. on a single parent and i believe my children attended the westberg foundation with you. my daughter is not here, so i wanted to say peter westberg was like the surrogate father i needed and all of the olympic teachers and it's helped me to raise my children. i like that you mentioned mental health. i'm a social worker. have you ever thought about starting programs in school-- fencing programs and then having maybe eight mental health team? >> that's a great question. i agree with you that peter does

become like a father figure for a lot of kids at the foundation and its really nice to help you as a single parent. i know what it was like for me to see you like olympic athletes and olympic medalists who were on the same skin complexion for the same time at the westberg foundation and how transformative that was for my mind. i have like one of my sisters whose sitting directly behind you, she's actually-- her and her husband have talked about this, but hopefully in the future we both can show up to start some type of sports programming, not specifically around fencing, but to help serve the community in ways that include outlets for you know speaking with social workers even i think is important. >> high. my question speaks to the idea being a muslim woman in the island area that you don't see a lot of muslim women in.

i'm not an athlete, but i'm going into academia like the world of politics of mac can be a scary place especially to this administration, so what would be your previous take away or like nuggets of advice? >> not to be afraid of being yourself an existing as you are. i think that there is something to be said for those of us who have courage and moments like this and not feel, you know, fear and feel like we have to change parts of our self to conform to an administration like this that is bigoted and races and doesn't want people like us to exist in these spaces , so i think the best form of resistance is to be unapologetic about who you are and not feel pressure to change parts of yourself. [applause].

>> you are my biggest inspiration and i went to know what inspires you? >> you do. [applause]. >> my question is, do you have advice for young people that want to go to the olympics in the future? >> yes, i would say to continue to work hard. i actually fence with the older brother, when i trained partners here there are hours in the gym that i am the only when their. i have my sister, my teammates can contest about where you'd be the first woman the gym in the last one to believe in people don't get it and aren't meant to understand your journey, but if you have a goal in mind and you work hard and you believe you

can accomplish it you can make it happen. [applause]. >> how did you feel when bobby asked you to be the first muslim barbie? >> the most important question of the night. [laughter] i fell for the queen of barbie from the time i was a kid. i played for barbies were like an uncomfortably long time. i was like 15 when i stopped playing with barbies. i had a three-story dollhouse with a pool on the roof at a corvette, a jeep. do you guys have a corvette or a jeep? no, that my barbies do. my parents only bought as black and brown dolls so when we went on the 250 and we are had, you

know i don't even remember the names. we already had those two brown dolls then we didn't get a doll that day in that was their effort for us to see ourselves represented even in something as simple as doll play, but for me to become barbie or to have a barbie made in my like this i feel like my life has come full circle because i can't even tell you how much i love that barbie. it's coming out releasing. i feel like i get that question all the time, sooner than you think. that's all i can say. about packaging is amazing. >> one in the way way back. [inaudible] >> we are here from los angeles. i'm here with my two daughters and my question is twofold and kind of big he backs on one of the other young ladies questions

and i'm wondering who were the most influential people in your life when you were growing up and who do you consider to the most influential now that you are young woman? >> you know, i feel like i have so made different people in my life who helped me believe that i could arrive at this moment in time that have planted the seed so that also watered it to help it grow to what it is today. when i think of athletes like kareem and dual jabbar or others i remember as a kid thinking like how are they playing and fasting. i could barely make it to lunchtime. i thought i was dying, but to see these athletes, to see how they can compete at the highest level of sports and fast, to see athletes like serena and venus williams to be unapologetic about who they were as black athletes in the tennis world, to

me there were some parallels to my career as a fencer and if you like it wasn't something that i could directly relate to because i was, you know, not even a blip on a map of fencing when they were really starting to ascend within the sport of tennis. i think that watching them allowed me to unconsciously grab my aspirations as an athlete and i have always wanted-- i want this generation to see a muslim athlete be successful. i want our generation to continue to see black athletes do really well and transcend sports in way that allows them to be inspired, allows them to see themselves through basic work even now in 2018 we are being like pushed out and told you are now welcome that this is a place for you and, i mean, there is that idea that it's just like i'm not waiting for a seat at the table. i'm not waiting for someone else to say hey, come on we want to be inclusive. i don't need anyone to do that.

i'm pulling a chair, taking a seat. [applause]. [speaking in native tongue] my question for you this during your fencing career, did your fencing or doing sports ever impact or inspire you to come closer to your faith? >> yeah, i feel like when i didn't qualify for the olympic team in 2012, which a lot of people don't know it didn't qualify in 2012. i feel like no one really wanted to talk with me about it. my family was like she didn't make it, you know? for me i felt like i didn't make it work-- because it wasn't meant for me to make. i feel like things that were meant for me the way god has it written as a way it's a supposed to happen so if it wasn't meant

for me it wasn't meant for me. so i was like okay i do not qualify so that's okay. what helped me continue in the sport and it ought to be truly affected by not qualify for such a huge sporting event, the olympic games, arguably the most important tournament is my faith. i have teammates who in my opinion were just lucky who still to this day have a really hard time accepting defeat and not making the team and feeling really affected by that and i believe that my faith and my faith has allowed me to become a greater athlete because i don't hang on the way my teammates to and i don't think that makes me any less competitive than any of the world cup athletes. i think that my understanding of defeat is a sense that it's temporary and there are life to lead so i can get caught up in

something as little as a loss because i know is an athlete i can go back to the gym and continue to train and help performing better the next competition, but there are people out there who things are way more important than sports in a sense where people are fighting for their lives they don't know where their next meal is coming from and they don't have access to clean drinking water. those are things that would be hurtful, you know, and dyer and losing a match or not qualify for an olympic team. >> funny because we are trying to teach our children. >> have a question. like what you say to the people that try to put you down in your career? >> i have a game plan. everyone should take out a pen. this is my plan. so, i don't listen to haters in any capacity work i have so many

trolls on social media and i'm big a fan of blocking and deleting, so i have like reporters and people say you have like the most positive social channel and everyone is so supportive. i know it's because i have deleted everyone. i have blocked everyone, so my trolls are constantly making new accounts because i-- like me and my sister go through my comments so fast. i don't even see the hater comments and not necessarily for me, but also for the young kids that read them. i don't think anyone needs to read those comments meant to be hurtful and spiteful. >> we have time for one more question. >> i have a question, more like -- so i have experience like people judge me based on me being outspoken and you know friendly and stuff that i don't

behave or act like a muslim and i was wondering how do you recommend i respond to that because i don't want to like sometime acted a badly manner, but also is quite offensive. do i tell someone how is a woman muslim expected to behave, you know? >> so, are you getting these comments from fellow muslims are people who say you are not representing muslims in a positive light? >> well, most yes sometimes but not most of the time from muslims. basically like people from work or school or you know just out in the street, you know, people hear me speak in a way and they make the comment, you know? i just wanted to know how should i react to it, you know? >> the thing i always think about is ted talk, the

single-story help people think there's a single-story for the mexican dishwasher or the black domestic or you know different people. we are many stories; right? there are many layers to us and there's not a single way, i mean, you are different from you and for me and i don't think there's a single way to the my .-dot. at the same time, of the course, people have an expectation they sometimes on stereotypes and refuse to see people as their individual self, so i think what we have been talking about most of the night is the importance of being who you are and having a deep respect for that and i always tell my kids when you go outside you are ambassadors, ambassadors for our family, ambassadors for the black community. there are all these ways in which who you walk into the

world will be judged by many, so what is that look like. i think it's a complicated narrative and at the same time people have an idea of who we are supposed to be that we m hae are supposed to be that we might not necessarily be. does that makes-- make sense to i think that makes a lot of sense and that is something i carry with me every day. i always feel like an ambassador for the black community and everything that i do. i feel like an ambassador for the muslim community especially because i work in job. i feel that pressure all the time and not just because i'm a public figure, but because i feel like my faith reminds me of the way that in my mind i would like to behave and also i feel like i have a long legacy of the people that i need to-- that i would like to live up to and at the same time like jackson said his most important not you feel comfortable with yourself. >> thank you.

>> what an inspirational evening thank you all, jacqueline. we have copies of her books for sale. , we-- you will stick around to sign copies of your "proud" book for young adults and four adults. thank you all for being here. thank you, lisa. >> thank you. [applause]. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> you are watching the tv on c-span2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. book tv, television for serious readers. >> this weekend on book tv on afterwards, economists weighs in on why democracy around the world is failing to produce economic growth. fox news host greg got filled offers his take on the top news stories he's covered over the years and law professor reports on hate in america. he offers his spots on how to address it. also, librarian of congress carla hayden gives a preview of next weekend national book festival work william provides

his research on the causes for climate change and professor travers reports on the findings of her study the follows the lives of transgender children for five years this weekend on book tv, 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books. for a complete schedule visit book tv.org. >> when i was very young, i thought that good reader meant to that one could read all the books that filled to tiny shelves in a two room schoolhouse. when i began to study in places where books were so many that they filled multiple library building with levels deep under the ground i thought that good reader must mean reading as many of those books as possible in making their knowledge. when i was a young teacher in a place whose teachers had long

left my only thought was that if i could not help those children become good readers they would never leave the borders of their families indentured lives in rural hawaii. when i first became a researcher , i chased when studies would compare good readers with a children and individuals with dyslexia who worked harder than almost anyone else to understand and read the text. finally, when i studied with the brain does when it retrieves the meanings of words-- gina. [laughter] i learned that every meaning i could that for good reader would be activated when i thought of it. i have added a new meaning as discussed in my introduction. aristotle wrote that a good society has three lives, the

life of knowledge and productivity, the life of entertainment within the greek very particular understanding of leisure and finally the life of contemplation. so too i believe are the three lives of the good reader. there is the first life of a good reader in gathering information and acquiring knowledge and we are all awash in that life. there's a second life in which reading is very warm-- verse forms of entertainment are to be found in abundance, the sheer distraction and exquisite pleasure of immersion in stories of other lives in articles about mysterious discovered xo planets , and poems that steal our breath away. we read to take this most

economic transformers away from power frantically pursued everyday life. the third life of a good reader is the culmination of that reading and determine its of the other two lives. the reflective life in which whatever genre we are reading we enter a totally invisible personal realm, a private holy ground where we can contemplate all manner of human existence and ponder universe whose real ministries swore that any of our imagination. theologian john donne wrote that our culture fully embodies aristotle's first life of good society. but, we've seen each day from the third contempt this life, so

to i think the third of life of the good reader. there is no shortage of contemporary observers of our culture who worried that the meditated dimension in human beings is threatened by an overwhelming emphasis on materialism, consumerism and a fractured relationship with time. as steve wasserman asks, is the east coast of acceleration price fighting internet diminish our capacity for the liberation and in people our capacity for genuine reflection? does the daily information banish the space needed for actual wisdom? readers use, readers know in

their bones something we forget at our peril that without books, indeed without literacy the good society vanishes and barbarism triumphs. now, if we are to evaluate the truth in such descriptions of a digital culture we must examine herself without a cognitive flinch and look at who we are now both as readers and as: inhabitants of a shared planet. many changes in our thinking always much to our biological reflex, novelty bias to novel stimulates to survive as a culture-- excuse me, to attempt to novel stimulates to survive. i lost that track even though i wrote it. we have this novelty bias and as

a species we had to look at all of these new to survive whether it's predatory or pray and i'm suggesting that the changes in our thinking today always much to that biological reflex to attempt novels and stimulate add to a culture that floods us with continuous collusion. it will be what we do next with our growing consciousness of these changes that matter whether we exacerbate the negative changes by ignoring them or redress them with increased knowledge. this will depend in part on what all of us do next. whether we are able to attend to our capacity for reflection in this pox is a matter of personal choice with critical implications not only for us as individuals, but for us as

citizens. john donne saw the loss of this as related to the rise in violence competent societies. i see it more as an outcome of our unforeseen constant need for efficiency buying time without knowing what purpose. ..