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Days of Reading

Marcel Proust

Proust’s meditations on reading, and the gifts that writers leave their readers. Best read slowly. more

Orality and Literacy

Walter J. Ong

Ong’s is perhaps the only book I’ve discovered that carefully and thoroughly addresses the differences between oral and literate cultures. In pointing out that Plato used writing to deliver his objections to the written word, he says “Once the word is technologized, there is no effective way to criticize what technology has done with it without the aid of the highest technology available” (page 79). more

Proust and the Squid

Maryanne Wolf

Wolf addresses the ways in which the brain adapts—or fails to adapt—to reading. An excellent history, as well as a compelling glimpse at the ways in which reading on the screen may yet create a new kind of literacy. more

Why There Are Pages And Why They Must Turn

Robert Bringhurst

A short essay about the future of the book from the inimitable Robert Bringhurst, lovingly typeset in Quadraat and printed on a Heidelberg cylinder press. more

The printing press as an agent of change

Elizabeth L. Eisenstein

A long academic work on the history of the advent of printing. The writing is scholarly (read: stuffy), but the subject is fascinating enough to make it worthwhile. more

A History of Reading

Alberto Manguel

While You’re Reading

Gerard Unger

Directed at the layman instead of the serious typographer, Unger’s book is a breezy overview of the science of reading. more

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read

Pierre Bayard

Provocative, cheeky, and very French. The title belies the real subject, which is an argument against reading and for writing. The book that convinced me to launch this site. more