The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society

James Marriott
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INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • The evidence is clear—we are now entering a post-literate society. In this urgent and timely account, James Marriott shows the potential impact of this shift and offers a passionate defense of the written word.

It’s not by chance that the rise of new printing technologies coincided with the age of revolutions and the decline of the aristocratic order. At the beginning of the modern era in Europe, a critical mass of people could share and debate ideas about individual rights, the purpose of government and scientific truth. With growing literacy came the world we recognize today.

Now, around the world, the number of peo­ple who read is in free fall. Literacy is declining or stagnating in most developed countries. Univer­sity students struggle mightily to read the books assigned in their classes. The golden chain of knowledge linking reader to reader through the centuries is breaking. Here, London Times col­umnist James Marriott argues that this—the New Dark Ages—is the most important cultural shift of our time. The age of print is giving way to the age of the screen. The world we knew is passing away and nothing will ever be the same again.

In this trenchant critique, Marriott assails the culture of modern life and singles out the written word as the best defense we have for a more en­lightened world. Provocative and enthralling, The New Dark Ages argues that reading and writing are essential for innovation, creativity and complex thought. Above all, the culture of print is critical to the functioning of modern democracies, which re­quire their citizens to grapple with ideas at length and in depth. As print dies, we risk returning to the chaos, tribalism and rage of the world before widespread literacy.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

平山探藝

莊志崗
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「百年來，香港藝壇匯聚了幾代藝術家：從辛亥革命後前清遺老登陸，到戰後南來文人的匯聚，再到本土新生代的崛起。他們當中不乏名士大家，只是缺少記錄者，以致許多名字都隱沒在時間的煙塵中。」作者莊志崗在《平山探藝》自序中寫道。面對這段被淡忘的歷史，他選擇以「愚公移山」的執拗，為香港藝壇留痕，他表示，《平山探藝》僅是一個「平山人」對香江藝術最深情的本分。

《平山探藝》系列由莊志崗先生執筆撰著，集古齋出版發行。作者號「平山人」，從事藝術工作近30年。多年來，他憑藉個人努力，走訪藝術家家屬、藝友及弟子，查閱史料與舊聞，蒐集珍貴的第一手資料，聚焦香港前輩藝術家，記錄25位藝術家的生平與藝跡。

《平山探藝》延續前兩輯的寫作方向，再次聚焦香港前輩藝術家，這些文字不僅是對藝術家個人經歷的整理，也呈現他們與香港社會、文化環境及藝術發展之間的深厚聯繫。透過作者的訪談、考證與梳理，讀者可以從一位位藝術家的生命故事中，窺見數十年來香港藝壇的發展流變。

書中人物涵蓋國畫、油畫、書法、篆刻、雕塑、版畫、陶藝及藝術教育等多個領域。他們在各自的藝術道路上深耕細作，或成就斐然，或自成一家，共同構成香港藝術發展史中不可忽略的重要篇章。

(摘錄自mybookone.com.hk)

Transforming Night: The History and Science of Light Pollution

Sara B. Pritchard
online access from JSTOR Books
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Who owns the night—and what is lost as we flood it with light, worldwide?

Darkness has become legible—and contested. Blending archival narrative with on-the-ground ethnography, Sara B. Pritchard traces how four fields—astronomy, remote sensing, conservation science, and ecology—have investigated artificial light at night, turning a ubiquitous convenience into a category of harm. From observatories chasing ever-receding darkness to the satellite images that first rendered a nocturnal planet from space and recent “Black Marble” maps, Pritchard shows how methods, instruments, and field sites shape what scientists can know about night and light—and what remains unseen.

Across these encounters, night emerges not as a backdrop but as an environment in its own right—one transformed by rapidly expanding, brightening illumination in the Anthropocene. Transforming Night chronicles the ascent of “light pollution,” as well as the new challenge of space-based brightness from satellite constellations, even as dark-sky advocates fight to preserve the starry firmament. Attentive to politics as much as photons, Pritchard brings environmental justice to the fore—highlighting tensions among light poverty, forced illumination, and surveillance and calls for “beneficial darkness.” She takes seriously Indigenous astronomers’ critiques of dispossession and “astro-colonialism,” asking what it means to site world-class telescopes on sacred land.

Sweeping from local parks to planetary vistas, Transforming Night reframes a familiar story of modern light as a history of changing nights—past, present, and possible. It will engage readers in environmental history and humanities, science and technology studies, and the sciences themselves, along with dark-sky activists and anyone drawn to the beauty and politics of the world after nightfall.

(Excerpt from the University of Washington Press)

港產魚類話滄桑 (Diminishing Returns: Reflections of a Hong Kong Fisherman)

陳少華、薜綺雯 (Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson)
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香港人與大海和魚類的關係，遠比你想像中深厚。

《港產魚類話滄桑》，由香港海事博物館出版，結集捕魚人口述歷史與魚類學者專業知識，娓娓道來香港漁業數十載的風雲變遷。每一條魚背後，都是我們這座城市與大海交織的獨有故事。

博物館很榮幸與兩位重量級作者合作 —
• 資深捕魚人、海產進口及水產養殖專家陳少華先生 ：用親身經驗，細說十類具代表性的本地魚種，帶你認識牠們的前世今生和社會變遷。
• 香港大學榮譽教授、著名魚類學家薜綺雯博士（Dr. Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson）：以科研角度剖析香港海洋生態的變化，讓你深入了解漁業背後的保育與知識。

（摘錄自香港海事博物館網站）

Secrets from the British Archives—Hong Kong and its Post-Colonial Future

Gary Cheung
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Based on the award-winning Chinese title, this updated English edition presents an in-depth account of the lengthy and often contentious discussions between China and Britain regarding the Hong Kong handover. Drawing on now declassified official government documents, it provides a careful analysis of events from the 1970s to 1997, which shaped Hong Kong’s future.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

社工必修24個核心社會科學理論

張兆球、張斯皓
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當前社工教育與實務往往偏重操作技術，許多學生與同工雖熟悉操作步驟，對支撐實務的理論基礎卻未有深入了解，難以敏鋭剖析服務對象的處境。此外，現存教材多植根西方語境，若生硬套用於華人社會中，往往會引發理解偏差，進而削弱介入的專業效能。

本書精選24個核心社會科學理論，專為本地語境量身打造，結合本地文化背景與實務案例（如外傭育兒、華人的家庭觀念），使抽象理論具象化。透過豐富案例與反思性討論，本書能夠協助讀者在具體情境中靈活轉化理論，培養批判思維與反思能力，真正深化專業技能。

(摘錄自 cityu.edu.hk/upress)