A working library is an exploration of—and advocate for—Collections
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A Reader on Reading
Alberto Manguel
A series of essays from the author of A History of Reading that explores the reader’s perspective. The section called “Memoranda” approaches the politics of reading and is worth the cover price alone. Manguel’s skill at connecting true events with their fictional counterpart—and so making them both appear more clearly—is both keen and profound.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Library at Night
Alberto Manguel
A series of meandering essays on the subject of the library.
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A History of Reading
Alberto Manguel
Manguel’s lifelong dedication to reading plays itself out in a work that follows reading from clay tablets to present day. No apology is made for a reader-centric view: “We cannot do but read. Reading, almost as much as breathing, is our essential function.” (page 7)
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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.
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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.
