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A History of Reading

by Alberto Manguel

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English (14) French (3) Dutch (1) Norwegian (1) All languages (19)

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wlchui | Aug 2, 2009 |

Manguel's history is a very readable if occasionally romantic survey of that very important thing, reading. (

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aesop | May 29, 2009 |

Just wonderful and serendipitous. A joy! (

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CarltonC | Oct 31, 2008 |

3885. A History of Reading, by Alberto Manguel (read 1 May 2004) This is a discursive book, showing much appreciation for reading, and evidencing a vast knowledge of literature. It refers to lots of books, and has good footnotes, but no separate bibliography. I did not find it memorable. (

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Schmerguls | Nov 4, 2007 |

A lot more interesting than it sounds. Manguel gives a very interesting overview of reading and how it has evolved (and stayed the same) over time. (

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drewandlori | Oct 16, 2007 |

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Epigraph

"But who shall be the master? The writer or the reader?" -Denis Diderot

To Craig Stephenson,
"That day she put our heads together,
Fate had her imagination about her,My head so much concerned with outer

Yours with inner weather.
-After Robert Frost-

"Reading has a history." -Robert Darnton, The Kiss of Lamourette, 1990

"For the desire to read, like all the other desires which distract our unhappy souls, is capable of analysis." -Virginia Woolf, "Sir Thomas Browne", 1923

Dedication

To Craig Stephenson,

To the reader

First words

One hand limp by his side, the other to his brow, the young Aristotle languidly reads a scroll unfurled on his lap, sitting a cushioned chair with his feet comfortably crossed.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Phillip Lopate (A History of Reading is a wonderful merger of scholarship and personal essay. Manguel is clearly enchanted with the act of reading, and he writes so beautifully and felicitously that he infects us with his enthusiasm again and again. He has perpetrated a delight.)

Edward Hoagland (A kaleidoscopic chrestomathy by a bookman-polymath who seems to know almost everything and grows on you, idiosyncratically.)

Margaret Visser (Anyone who reads will be hooked right away: this is a book for bookworms, written with the passion and attention to detail we deserve, and are likely to demand. It is, after all, a history of ourselves, and a celebration of our favorite occupation.)

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Wikipedia in English (1)

Alberto Manguel

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▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com (ISBN 0140166548, Paperback)

This wide-ranging and erudite exploration of the topic of reading is suffused with the spirit of Manguel's fellow Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges. Manguel takes us through the history of reading as if leading us room by room through the infinite library Borges constructed in one of his famous stories. Manguel's approach is not chronological, but thematic. His chapter topics jump from attempts to censor reading to the physical surroundings favored by readers, from the limitations of translations to the esotericism of books written for a restricted readership. Throughout he moves easily through time and geography to quote anecdotes and examples from diverse sources. Manguel's enthusiasm, and the impressive breadth of his reading, will make his readers eager to rush to the nearest library.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:57 -0400)

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