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The Solitary Vice: Against Reading, PopMatters / Counterpoint, Feb 2008. “The Solitary Vice,” for anyone who's unfamiliar with the phrase, is the best-known Victorian euphemism for masturbation, a habit which, at the time, was widely believed to cause not only physical damage and moral decline in this life, but eternal damnation in the next. This book is about a different solitary vice – the act of reading. "Mikita Brottman is one of us: another victim of the unhealthiest and most solipsistic of media pleasures. In this compelling condemnation of literature, she nonetheless offers us one more reason to pick up a good book--her own." --- Douglas Rushkoff "The Solitary Vice will make you rethink your own relation to reading. Brottman is wonderful at reminding us what a very complicated act -- of fantasy, recompense, adventurism, and (sometimes) perversity -- reading a book can be." —-Laura Kipnis Order from Amazon.com. Upcoming Readings: Atomic Pop, 3620 Falls Road, Baltimore, Friday March 14, 7pm. Pictures. St. Mark's Bookshop Reading Series, New York, Thursday March 27, 7.30pm Reviews: -- Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness, Feb 2008. -- Geeta Sharma-Jensen, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, March 22, 2008. -- The Complete Review, March 2008.  |
