I can’t improve on Matthew Battles’ introduction:

Maybe in the rush towards the Singularity, towards our apotheosis as networked demiurges who are always plugged in, always on, always checking and modulating moods and statuses and messages, the book will carve out a niche as the technology that lets you disappear. Until they get the whole quantum cloaking thing worked out, after all, the book is the best invisibility tech we have. Reading one increasingly seems like a cultural kilt, a silent version of the skirl of pipes on a misty hillside. The reader is the one true Scotsman of culture.

Please do enjoy:

Julian Smith

via Alan Jacobs