Readers for Life: How Reading and Listening in Childhood Shapes Us

by Sander L. Gilman (editor), Heta Pyrhönen (editor)

An anthology both personal and profound exploring the deep meaning of reading in our lives.

Readers for Life is a collection of essays, mainly specially commissioned for the book, by fiction authors and literary scholars, who reflect on their childhood or adolescent memories of reading. The essays explore how the act of reading shapes an individual, from our formative years into adulthood and beyond. Instead of focusing on reading as an act of escapism, or mere literacy, these writings celebrate reading as a lifelong, joyful experience that intertwines past and present. By revealing our diverse reading histories, the collection fosters awareness of the profound impact of reading on a person’s development and offers readers insights that will enrich their own literary experiences.

Featuring an introduction by editors Sander L. Gilman and Heta Pyrhönen, Readers for Life includes essays by Natalya Bekhta, Peter Brooks, Philip Davis, Linda and Michael Hutcheon, Sander L. Gilman, Daniel Mendelsohn, Laura Otis, Laura Oulanne, Heta Pyrhönen, Salman Rushdie, Cristina Sandu, Pajtim Statovci, and Maria Tatar, as well as an interview with Michael Rosen.

304 pages, Hardcover

Published November 28, 2024

About the author

Sander L. Gilman is an American cultural and literary historian. He is known for his contributions to Jewish studies and the history of medicine. He is the author or editor of over ninety books. Gilman's focus is on medicine and the echoes of its rhetoric in social and political discourse.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this book. There were moments I was loving it (such as when I read the quote I have included below), but there were also points where I was bored and frustrated. I think this comes down to this being a collection of essays by different authors. While some of the essays were great, there were a few of them that missed the mark in terms of aligning with the synopsis and the type of content I was expecting from this book.


"We know, when we hear these tales, that even though they are 'unreal', because carpets do not fly and witches in gingerbread houses do not exist, they are also 'real', because they are about real things: love, hatred, fear, power, bravery, cowardice, death. They simply arrive at the real by a different route. They are so, even though we know they are not so."

Thank you to New South Books AU for the gifted review copy.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost flung the book down while struggling through the preface/introduction, "Setting the Scene." It's obviously someone's dissertation trying to be readable prose. The prose is not coherent, ideas don't connect together, and it is strewn with academic jargon (such as: "Close reading infused with the hermeneutics of suspicion... and "Each unravelling...is always in the interstices of that contradiction."). I was relieved to find that the essays were by other authors, but none were profound or particularly insightful. Salman Rushdie's essay is the one thing this book has going for it. I probably should have stopped halfway through the preface though--life is too short for mediocre writing and ideas.