Scholar Traces the History of Books

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Dr. Alan Jacobs, the Clyde S. Kilby Chair Professor of English at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., will present his lecture The End of the Book and the Future of Reading at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, in the Alexander Drawing Room on the first floor of Alexander Residence Hall on the Baylor campus. Baylor's Honors College hosts the lecture series, which features scholars, authors and public figures, throughout the year.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature Jacobs discussing the history of the book. He will cover how the Bible has helped shaped the history of the book, the act of reading and recent book technologies, such as the Kindle, a wireless reading device.
"All of us need to be careful and well-informed thinkers about the rapid and pervasive changes in the technologies of reading," Jacobs said.
Jacobs received his bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and his doctorate from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va. In 1984, he joined the faculty at Wheaton.
In 1998, Jacobs published What Become of Wystan: Change and Continuity in Auden's Poetry. Since then, he has published seven more books, among them A Theology of Reading: The Hermeneutics of Love; The Narnian: The Imagination of C.S. Lewis; and his most recent publication, Original Sin: A Cultural History.

Alexander Residence Hall is located near the intersection of 7th Street and Baylor Street in Waco.
For more information, visit the Honors College Lecture Series website.
by Lillyan Baker, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805