Reading the 90 short essays in the book, however, offers a chance to commune with others and ponder the importance and aftermath of the events. After reading a few entries, I wanted to stop to write my own — to try to use language to sort out the unthinkable, as many of the authors seem to do.

Of course, many focus on interpreting those unforgettable images.

"Imagine a mountain disappearing before your eyes," is the way one writer, Bill Pfeiffer, founding director of the Sacred Earth Network, put it. "I stared in disbelief."

Published just 19 days after the world-changing moment for which it is named, the book is a strange mix of genres. On one hand, it is a journalism anthology, with dozens of articles and commentary essays that first appeared in daily and weekly newspapers and magazines. It is also part oral history, with letters and first-hand accounts that were first posted to an Internet forum for writers called BlueEar.com. The book was compiled by representatives of these two kinds of writing — Jay Rosen, chairman of the journalism department at New York University, and Ethan Casey, editor-in-chief of BlueEar.com (click here to read Rosen’s foreword and excerpts). A second volume, Dispatches from a Wounded World, which has just been released, offers a global response to the discussion of terrorism and Sept. 11. 

09/11 8:48 is essentially a well-organized Web site that someone printed out for friends to see. In fact, the book is touted as an example of a revolutionary new type of on-demand publishing, where books are printed as they are ordered on line, rather than in advance in large runs distributed to bookstores. The book is also available in electronic form at a discounted price ($6). Its publisher, Booksurge.com, specializes in e-books and print-on-demand services. All proceeds from its sale are directed toward relief efforts. 

Anthologies and oral histories, of course, are usually compiled long after events have unfolded, and they often provide the sense that their parts tell a unified story. This collection is, appropriately, far more tentative and open-ended.

For instance, though the book is divided into three parts — "September 11," "Aftermath," and "Angles of Vision" — such categories often seem forced, as almost every entry attempts to describe the events, the days immediately following, and to offer some sort of analysis. One journalist who contributed to the book told me that his essay was split into two parts by the editors, with one half placed in the first section and the other half in the second section. In many ways, the most telling thing about the book is how raw it appears despite its neatly bound pages and standardized sections.

"At a time like this, I can feel myself moving into ‘Patriotic Mode,’" wrote Derrick N. Ashong, a musician and actor who was born in Ghana but became a U.S. citizen. "I think ‘God Bless America,’ I pray for all those who may risk their lives in defense of our nation … I believe we all must stand together as a people. But I also believe we must look at where we’re standing, and be sure that we are truly grounded in what we say we believe in. Liberty and Justice for ALL. Not just for some Americans, not even all Americans, not just for our allies but for ALL. I pledge allegiance to the World."

Karen Houppert, an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University, was one of the many to express the uncertainty that immediately followed the events.

"No one seems quite sure how to proceed. At first we wanted to do something hands-on. Hundreds of volunteers were turned away from the World Trade Center site, the blood banks, the hospitals due to an abundance of help. Now, it seems that New Yorkers are following the rest of the nation, who were quicker to move talk toward vengeance."

And many of the entries are dotted with questions.

"How do we understand this massacre? What is the connection between understanding, judgment and action? …. How do we connect this horror to the past and to the future, and to the many horrors that preceded it and will surely follow," asked Susie Linfield, a book critic for the Los Angeles Times who teaches journalism at NYU. "And where do we go from here?"

These questions will likely remain pressing for months and years to come. But the power of 09/11 is its urgent tone. The mood of the tragedy’s immediate aftermath has been captured and preserved through this sampling of accounts, and printing them in an old-fashioned book will likely help reach a broader audience and ensure that they are preserved for later readers.

For the moment, however, the book makes a statement about the important of words — in looking away and reflecting — to help cope with the image-saturated coverage of this tragedy.

"The more I see that awful clip of the second plane slicing through its target, the more surreal and less intelligible it becomes," wrote Ellen Willis, director of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at New York University. "The images I saw on TV will resonate forever in my brain and in the national life, but I can remember little of what was said [in news reports] — it all felt like filler, accompaniment. "

"To be able to read and mull over words on paper — the headlines, the various narratives as they are being pieced together by reporters, the eyewitness accounts, the early attempts at commentary … this for me is the beginning of taking the measure of an outsized event and groping toward the understanding that makes intelligent action possible," she added.

Later books will likely do a better job interpreting the terrorist attacks, but 09/11 provides thoughtful subtitles to Sept. 11’s images of terror.

Jeffrey R. Young is a technology reporter for the The Chronicle of Higher Education. He can be reached via e-mail or through his Web site. He previously wrote about the world’s largest multimedia gathering in Helsinki.

Related Sites
Visit Booksurge.com to order 09/11 8:48 AM; Documenting America’s Greatest Tragedy.