Alberta Readers' Choice Award

Alberta Readers' Choice Award Top 5

"In Bed with the Word: Reading,
Spirituality, and Cultural Politics"
by Daniel Coleman (February 2009)

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. This is the perfect companion for those who worry about living in a culture of distraction and who long to reconnect with something deeper.

Reviews
"In Bed with the Word is...part memoir, part essay, a lyrical text that moves gracefully between citations of Socrates, St. Augustine, Barthes and Derrida, and funny, poignant stories about boarding school in Addis Ababa, or Coleman's professorial misadventures, confronted by the truculent university students of the digital age.... Over the centuries, many religious leaders and philosophers have been wary of reading, seeing it as an escape from reality and community, or a barrier to spiritual engagement. But Coleman sees reading as an act of trust, of caritas, a way of opening yourself to the ideas of others, a path to spiritual transcendence.... For Coleman, books aren't merely a convenient, portable way to transmit doctrine or to spread knowledge. In the very act of reading, he says, we assume a posture of spiritual openness that connects us to something beyond ourselves." Paula Simons, The Edmonton Journal, July 12, 2009

"The world is so fast and loud, but how much good would some extra time of peace and mediation do? In Bed with the Word is author Daniel Coleman's claim that the world would be a much better place if people slowed down and stopped to enjoy life, as well as embrace the written word more thoroughly. Calling the modern world a culture of distraction, Coleman makes many interesting points through his work. In Bed with the Word is a fine and highly recommended piece of social issues writing." Bookwatch, July 2009

"Reading, according to Daniel Coleman, is more than just becoming engrossed in a story or learning information that will enrich your life. It's a cultural act that has religious ramifications on personal and societal levels. The passage in the [initial] passage was Coleman's older brother, John, and the book he was trying to read was the King James Bible. The author is quick to point out that it was not the Christian text that made the act religious. Rather it was the quiet contemplation, the involvement with a cultural treasure and the act of separating oneself from the world.... For someone who has difficulty becoming engrossed with books, In Bed with the Word had a kind of power over me. His combination of narrative with meditative passages (including songs and historical references) lends the entire work a warm cadence, a rhythmic introspection that leads farther and farther outward from within you.... Interesting anecdotes aside, this is an important book for parents to read in order for them to understand why they should instill the value of books in their own children before they get too old. What better time to do this than at the height of summer when there is a lot of free time to sit around with a good novel. Kids shouldn't be spending the entire summer with video games either, right? Coleman says that it only needs to have words and, despite the title, you don't actually have to be in bed to read them." Scott Hayes, St. Albert Gazette, July 22, 2009

"The joy of the independent bookstore, like the joy of the independent music store, is in its ability to feature the new and the unknown. As intuitive as Amazon's 'Customers Who Bought This Might Enjoy That' has become, there will never be a substitute for the 'Staff Picks' section. I enjoyed visiting Audreys Books on Jasper Avenue in Edmonton recently, where I bought Daniel Coleman's In Bed With The Word. Dr. Coleman is my age, roughly, and this book is personal, reflective; it is the kind of book one associates with the seasoned scholars I guess we are becoming (or have now become). In any case, it is neither the kind of book I would expect simply to stumble across on the 'net nor the kind of thing a brick and mortar store would here stock, even our university bookstore. I was happy to give my money to Audreys." Craig Monk, The Classroom Conservative, http://www.craigmonk.com/the_classroom_conservativ/2009/05/bookstore-blues-part-two.html

"This issue [of the Colleagues List] begins with a book notice concerning an intriguing volume of spiritual reflection from Daniel Coleman who has taught Canadian & Diasporic literature for many years at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON. Coleman did undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree work at Regina and the University of Alberta, Edmonton. The son of missionary parents, he grew up in Africa and continues to be strongly influenced in his spiritual writing by his evangelical Protestant background. It is most unusual that a secular university press would consider releasing In Bed with the Word. But the University of Alberta Press, in its wisdom, has seen this book for what it is -- a high quality contribution to literature. Coleman is influenced by colleague Ron Rolheiser who readers of this letter hear from regularly. He is also a reader of the work of Karen Armstrong and several other modern writers from the field of faith. Coleman blends a solid grasp of biblical and theological literature with a strong sense of what appeals to serious modern readers." Canadian Anglicans, Colleagues List (edited by Wayne A. Holst), May 2, 2009

"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, looking for a hidden cache of sweet treats in her grandmother's linen drawer, discovers instead a book on the 1791 Haitian revolution that explains her own past and determines her eventual emergence as a writer (Dionne Brand) examining the cultural politics of African dislocation and the trauma of slavery. Coleman goes on to present others whose reading encounters have created seismic shifts in their interior worlds and have surfaced back into their daily lives, that have at once become both mirror and ocean." Margaret Anne Fehr, Prairie Books Now, Spring 2009

"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

Media
Interview with Daniel Coleman on CKUA (audio)

About the Author
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 a memoir about his youth in The Scent of Eucalyptus, 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. His first book with the University of Alberta Press was ReCalling Early Canada.

About University of Alberta Press
UAP makes a significant contribution to knowledge through the publication of scholarly books based on research undertaken at the University of Alberta and other research centres. In addition we publish serious nonfiction, trade fiction and poetry and books of regional interest.

For more information about Rocky Mountain Books, visit http://press.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp.