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:

Praise for A History of Reading:

"Ingenious...a veritable museum of literacy. One feels envious of his passion...through it, his gift becomes our own."--The New York Times Book Review

"Manguel has taken on the daunting subject of our own passion for books and succeeded in turning it into a passionate book of his own."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"No one who follows Manguel's narrative to its conclusion need ever again feel guilty about putting off errands, chores, the bills, the kids, sleep--whatever--and curling up with a good, or even a great, book."--Newsweek

"Manguel is a generous companion...he remains, in the proper sense of the word, an 'amateur, ' a lover rather than a specialist."--George Steiner, the New Yorker

"Richly detailed and utterly fascinating...what lifts A History of Reading above mere charm and idiosyncrasy is Manguel's reader's soul. A few hours passed with [his] book will remind anyone who needs reminding that an astonishing bond exists between word and world."--Sven Birkerts, Boston Magazine

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

"Manguel's digressions are delightful, his anecdotes appealing, and his stories scintillating. What might have been no more than one dammed thing after another turns out to be, at the handsof this splendid raconteur, one divine thing after another....It is all utterly beguiling."--The Boston Sunday Globe

"Impressionistic, engrossing."--Time

"An entertaining, provocative, and informative book."--The Washington Post

"Tickles, surprises, and amuses."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Impressive, engaging."--The Washington Times

"Erudite and original."--The Miami Herald

"Enormously entertaining."--San Francisco Chronicle

"A wonderful merger of scholarship and personal essay....Manguel writes so beautifully and felicitously that he infects us with enthusiasm again and again."--Philip Lopate

"Manguel's urbane, unpretentious tone recalls that of a friend eager to share his knowledge and enthusiasm. His book, digressive, witty, surprising, is a pleasure."--Kirkus

"Highly enjoyable....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

"An eclectic and deeply felt history of reading. It is a history illuminated by an acute sensibility....An unfailingly engaging work."--School Library Journal

"Unique, enlightening, and as captivating as a celebration of reading should be."--Booklist

"Interesting, intriguing, and entertaining."--Library Journal

"Erudition and memoir are beautifully wed in this stimulating and provocative book."--Virginia Quarterly Review

From the Back Cover:

"To read is to fly; it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience, and the fruits of many inquiries. A life thus equipped might not be happier – might sometimes be less so, indeed, for to know more can be to feel more, and the ground note of history is a long cry of pain – but it is vastly richer . . .As is inevitable with so self-reflexive an enterprise, much has been written about books and reading. Little of it has been better than this wonderful account, 'A History of Reading', by Alberto Manguel, a judicious magpie of a literatus who has collected a trove of fascinations on the subject, and arranged them brilliantly . . . .almost every page bristles with interest"
A C GRAYLING 'Financial Times'

"Wonderful stuff . . . A rich and savoury casserole of learning, Manguel’s 'A History of Reading' at first refreshes and soothes the jaded palate and ends with delicious titbits from the lives and works of great authors. "
VICTORIA NEUMARK ' Times Educational Supplement'

"What Alberto Manguel has given us is his personal response to books and reading in the form of an anthology comprising mythology, anecdote, theology, history and autobiography . . . in lucid and elegant prose . . . highly enjoyable. I finished 'A History of Reading' 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'Sunday Times'

"A charming, old-fashioned, up-to-date, belletristic tribute to the art of reading."
KARL MILLER 'Observer'

"Delightful, written in a lively and lucid prose. "
ROGER SCRUTON 'The Times'

"A passionate book . . . .highly entertaining. "
MICHIKO KAKUTANI 'New York Times'

Manguel’s erudition is awe-inspiring"
D J ENRIGHT 'Times Literary Supplement'

"A delightfully wide-ranging, beguiling study of a small daily miracle. "
PAUL BAILEY ' Daily Telegraph'

About this edition

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