In this month's Brooklyn Rail, I review Adam Kirsch's book Why Trilling Matters, find the link here:
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2012/04/books/in-like-a-lion
Also find the books I refer to, All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfuss and Sean Dorrance Kelly, and The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time by David Ulin, in the links. They are both great reads.