In Bed With the Word

While reading is a deeply personal activity, paradoxically, it is also fundamentally social and outward-looking. Daniel Coleman, a lifelong reader and professor of literature, combines story with meditation to reveal this paradox and illustrate why, more than ever, we need this special brand of "quiet time" in our lives. In Bed with the Word sparks with every conceivable enticement for those who worry about living in a culture of distraction and who long to reconnect with something deeper. How can reading be deeply personal yet fundamentally social? Coleman examines philosophical and spiritual aspects of reading. Front cover: In Bed with the Word Daniel Coleman Spine: Coleman In Bed with the Word Front Flap: "Reading is not solely an exercise to feed one's inner life. Rather, eating the book -- not just nibbling at it, or having a little taste here and there, but eating it wholesale -- produces a changed person, an empowered person, a different kind of person, and changed people means social and political change, too, not just personal change." Daniel Coleman Back flap: Daniel Coleman was born and raised in Ethiopia and came to Canada to go to college. After BEd and MA degrees from the University of Regina, and a PhD from the University of Alberta, he went on to teach Canadian and Diasporic literatures in the Department of English at McMaster University. He has written The Scent of Eucalyptus, a memoir about his youth, and in 2007 he won the Raymond Klibansky Prize for the best English-language book in the Humanities for White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada. Back cover: While reading is a deeply personal activity, paradoxically, it is also fundamentally social and outward-looking. Daniel Coleman combines story with meditation to reveal this paradox and to illustrate why, more than ever, we need this special brand of "quiet time" in our lives. In Bed with the Word is the perfect companion for those who worry about living in a culture of distraction and who long to reconnect with something deeper. "This is a rare manuscript. In my view it has perfect pitch, a generous openness, and makes demands on the reader that are eagerly engaged by the lively mind. In style, content, and argument, it is lovely." --David J. Goa, Director of the Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life The University of Alberta Press ISBN: 978-0-88864-507-4 Printed in Canada Price $19.95 in Canada Book design by Alan Brownoff www.uap.ualberta.ca Selected bibliography, index "Such is the power of reading that it not only nourishes spirituality and enables us to see beyond the limitations of our own experience; it also reinvigorates our cultural politics, says Coleman. The dialogue shared between an author and those who read can change the ways in which we are in the world and produce people empowered to live for justice and compassion. Through dialogue with poetry, history, memoir and fiction, Daniel Coleman demonstrates how spirituality and social change are supported through the disarmingly simple, yet deeply subversive practice of reading. In Bed with the Word invites us into conversation with an author who approaches the world with interest and generosity, handles words with skill and great care, and eagerly extends an invitation to allow ourselves to be transformed and connected by what we read. I realized it had done its work in me when I found myself making plans to read it aloud with friends. It is a deeply satisfying read." Barbara Mutch, Carey Theological College "Coleman presents vignettes of individuals and their own personal encounters with books at pivotal moments in their lives. A young boy of six in his first days at boarding school, feeling lost and alone, curls up in his bed with the King James Bible to recreate a morning ritual that was modeled by his parents. Even though he does not yet read, he understands the comfort of books. Elsewhere in the world, a curious eight-year-old Trinidadian girl, look