An original entry in a long line of books extolling learning for learning's sake, Lost in Thought is a refreshing read: part memoir, part philosophy briefer, part popular literature and film analysis, and part who's-who in intellectual history. The author herself is an accomplished and disillusioned academic who left her ivory tower in order to join a religious community, ultimately becoming a tutor at a tiny liberal arts college (full disclosure: my alma mater) and foundress of an educational nonprofit offering accessible zero-cost reading groups. Take refuge from the world one Sunday afternoon with this treasure of a book and savor an honest voice's ode to the useless.
Publisher Princeton University Press
Publication Date 2021-08-24
Section New Titles - Paperback / Philosophy / All Staff Suggestions / Nonfiction Suggestions / Andrew S.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9780691229195
An invitation to readers from every walk of life to rediscover the impractical splendors of a life of learning
In an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz writes, few experiences are so fulfilling as the inner life, whether that of a bookworm, an amateur astronomer, a birdwatcher, or someone who takes a deep interest in one of countless other subjects. Drawing on inspiring examples, from Socrates and Augustine to Malcolm X and Elena Ferrante, and from films to Hitz's own experiences as someone who walked away from elite university life in search of greater fulfillment, Lost in Thought is a passionate and timely reminder that a rich life is a life rich in thought.
Today, when even the humanities are often defended only for their economic or political usefulness, Hitz says our intellectual lives are valuable not despite but because of their practical uselessness. And while anyone can have an intellectual life, she encourages academics in particular to get back in touch with the desire to learn for its own sake, and calls on universities to return to the person-to-person transmission of the habits of mind and heart that bring out the best in us.
Reminding us of who we once were and who we might become, Lost in Thought is a moving account of why renewing our inner lives is fundamental to preserving our humanity.
