A History of Reading - Softcover

Manguel, Alberto

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143126717 ISBN 13: 9780143126713

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2014

Synopsis

At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning, and at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. Noted essayist and editor Alberto Manguel moves from this essential moment to explore the six-thousand-year-old conversation between words and that hero without whom the book would be a lifeless object: the reader. Manguel brilliantly covers reading as seduction, as rebellion, and as obsession and goes on to trace the quirky and fascinating history of the reader’s progress from clay tablet to scroll, codex to CD-ROM.

About this title

Review:

This book contains some of the best writing about reading, encompassing the 6,000-year recorded history of this oldest of media--books. I should note that its dust-jacket surpasses mere decoration: Remove it, flip it open, and there is a lovely timeline of the history of reading to post next to your reading chair. An absolutely delightful book and, not surprisingly, Very Highly Recommended.

From the Back Cover:

"An absolute treasure.... Alberto Manguel has written a celebration of reading [that] has the impact of an elegy." -The Globe and Mail

"Anyone who reads will be hooked right away: ...it is, after all, a history of ourselves, and a celebration of our favourite occupation." -Margaret Visser

"A love letter written to reading." -George Steiner, The New Yorker

"A remarkable achievement. I finished the book with a sense of gratitude to have shared this journey through time in the company of a mind so lively, knowledgeable and sympathetic." -P.D. James, The Sunday Times

"A highly entertaining overview that leaves us with both a new appreciation for our own bibliomania and a deeper understanding of the role that the written word has played throughout history." -The New York Times

"Awe-inspiring.... A fine anthology of things we are unlikely to have found, or ever to find, for ourselves." -The Times Literary Supplement

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0143126717
• ISBN 13: 9780143126713
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384