A History of ReadingAt one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. Noted essayist Alberto Manguel moves from this essential moment to explore the 6000-year-old conversation between words and that magician without whom the book would be a lifeless object: the reader. Manguel lingers over reading as seduction, as rebellion, as obsession, and goes on to trace the never-before-told story of the reader's progress from clay tablet to scroll, codex to CD-ROM. |
Contents
THE LAST PAGE | |
The fate of every book is mysterious especially to its author | |
ACTS OF READING | |
The Silent Readers | |
The Book of Memory | |
Learning to Read | |
The Missing First Page | |
Picture Reading | |
Private Reading | |
Ordainers of the Universe | |
Reading the Future | |
The Author as Reader | |
The Translator as Reader | |
Forbidden Reading | |
ENDPAPER PAGES | |
The Shape of the Book | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
according act of reading al-Haytham ancient Anthony Comstock Aristotle asked audience Beatus Rhenanus became become Bible Biblia Pauperum Book of Hours Borges Buenos Aires Callimachus catalogue centuries later Christ Christian Church classics codex Constantine copy depicted early edition eyes fifteenth century French Geiler German glasses Greek hand history of reading images imagined intellectual invention Jorge Luis Borges Kafka King Labé Labé's Lady Murasaki language Latin learning to read letters Libri listener literature London Louise Labé manuscript Martini’s meaning medieval memory mother never novels object one’s Paris Petrarch Pillow Book Pliny poems poet printed public readings Quoted read out loud reader Rilke Roman Saint Augustine Saint Nilus scholar scribe scroll Sei Shonagon Sélestat sense sibyl silent reading society sometimes stories symbol tablets teacher translation verses Virgil voice volumes Whitman wisdom women words writing written wrote