All About Books discussion

Discuss our December/January group read 'A History of Reading' by Alberto Manguel here.

Happy reading!

I'm in the waiting list for it! I'm supposed to be the next one; hope to hate it for december then!

I can get a used copy for about £3.00 on amazon, not bad.

What's happened to the Rookie Teacher read? I thought that came top.

It did Gill, but since non-fiction runs for two month, we chose the winner and the second place like last time. The group read for the Tony Danza book is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Not that I'm complaining about having the choice of two books....but if we're reading two every time because the non-fiction read lasts for two months, wouldn't it be just as productive to nominate and read 1 book every month instead?! Just a thought.

Jenny wrote: "It did Gill, but since non-fiction runs for two month, we chose the winner and the second place like last time. The group read for the Tony Danza book is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."
Thanks, Jenny. Don't know how I missed it!

Pink wrote: "Not that I'm complaining about having the choice of two books....but if we're reading two every time because the non-fiction read lasts for two months, wouldn't it be just as productive to nominate..."

I think that having two books between which to choose - being non fiction not so eady to "please" - is better than having one book oer month. But thst's just my opinion!

Pink wrote: "Not that I'm complaining about having the choice of two books....but if we're reading two every time because the non-fiction read lasts for two months, wouldn't it be just as productive to nominate..."

@Pink, it is a test run for now, but personally I quite like it that way for reasons that Laura has already mentioned. The fact that we've chosen 2 for the last two runs also has to do with the fact that both times first and second place were only one vote apart, I am not yet sure whether we'd do the same if there was a significant lead by 5 or more votes for the winning book.

I quite like the choice too, just thought that 2 books in 2 months was much the same as 1 book per month.

I am on the waiting list with my library too, I hope I can at least start mid-month ...

I have put this book on hold and hope to get it soon.

I will start around mid-month as well. I've received the illustrated edition for my birthday and I swear you could easily work on biceps definition with it. It is sooo heavy!!! Lovely looking book though, I am really looking forward to start this.

It's a big book isn't it! I wasn't expecting that when I ordered it last month, but I'll be glad to get started with it.

It is, I am not sure what the English edition looks like, but the German hardcover seems to come with built in invisible bricks ;)

I received he file from https://openlibrary.org/ but it was too soon, so, since it looked so beautiful, I decided to buy it. I hope to receive it in a week or so!

I've read the introduction, liking it so far...

Laurel wrote: "I've read the introduction, liking it so far..."

me too :)

I've just finished the introduction, too. I've read some other Manguel, so I knew I would love his voice and connect with many of his observations... I'm looking forward to the rest of the book!

A few of my favorite bits so far:

"When I found that Cervantes, in his fondness for reading, read "even the bits of torn paper in the street",' I knew exactly what urge drove him to this scavenging."

Mmm... yes. The drive to read is, for me, almost a compulsion, and, when there is nothing else, I read whatever print I can find - packaging material, even.

"To write down one's impressions of Hamlet as one reads it year after year," wrote Virginia Woolf, "would be virtually to record one's own autobiography, for as we know more of life, so Shakespeare comments upon what we know."

One of the most amazing things about rereading a Great Book I haven't read in at least a few years, is how much differently it reads each time, how much of myself I find in the bits that jump out at me.

"I quickly learned that reading is cumulative and proceeds by geometrical progression: each new reading builds upon whatever the reader has read before."

Oh, YES!!! Each thing I read somehow enters into dialogue with what came before... it is weird sometimes.

"You cannot embark on life, that one-off coach ride, once again when it is over," writes the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk in The White Castle, "but if you have a book in your hand, no matter how complex or difficult to understand that book may be, when you have finished it, you can, if you wish, go back to the beginning, read it again, and thus understand that which is difficult and, with it, understand life as well."

No comments on this, but it is so true...

It's funny, I've been reading Woolf, or related things, off and on since February or March, when I started her Writer's Diary... and I'm reading Pmuk's Istanbul right now... another small way in which one book overlaps with another. So, reading these paragraphs is colored by the time I've been spent with the authors quoted this year...

Still waiting for the book to arrive ...

Jenny wrote: "It is, I am not sure what the English edition looks like, but the German hardcover seems to come with built in invisible bricks ;)"

I've got the German edition as well and it really is heavy :)

I've read a couple more chapters now, about how the brain works when we read and how the written word and reading developed over the past two millennia. I'm finding the book up and down and love how many great authors and books are mentioned, which makes me want to add them all to my TBR, though I'm finding some of the Manguel's writing style a little dry and boring at times.

I am the same Pink, I am around p 174 and enjoy his references to other books and authors a lot :) I also add continuously books to my tbr list

Manguel has ups and downs with the history of reading, some I devour and some of it I rather skim.

I am rather impatient to get started on this myself, but first I would like to finish 'Paradise Lost'. I think The History of Reading may end up being my Christmas read.

Same here in Italy

I've slowed down a little with this now, like the others said, some bits I'm loving, then others a bit slow. But still fascinating overall!

Yep, I'm halfway through and have put it to the side for the past few days. It is quite quick to read, but it's not a book that I find myself eager to pick up :(

I might order this in the next few days and have it sent to my uni address.

I will start tonight, really looking forward to it!

Just started it and it's very interesting so far!

I've LOVED it.
A bit "confused" - in the sense that it doesn't really follow a strict line, but this can be more a quality than a defect.
For further considerations in a day or two ...

I've been reading this again today. Some very enlightening sections, but also other parts that are a bit boring for me

Pink wrote: "I've been reading this again today. Some very enlightening sections, but also other parts that are a bit boring for me"

Yes, this is its main defect: not always on the same level

I've just finished this today and my opinion didn't change by the end. Lots of good facts about other authors, books and the history of reading. Overall I thought it read a bit like a school textbook, while informative, it was not exactly enjoyable.

LauraT wrote: "I've LOVED it.
A bit "confused" - in the sense that it doesn't really follow a strict line, but this can be more a quality than a defect.
For further considerations in a day or two ..."

I agree with you there, Laura

Pink wrote: "I've been reading this again today. Some very enlightening sections, but also other parts that are a bit boring for me"

Yup!

I am enjoying it so far but like Pink said, there are parts that I'm finding a bit tedious to read.Also, as Laura said, there's not much of a structure. Still, I'm learning a lot.

THat's right: there are parts that are a bit boring; the whole of the book moreover is not tight, if you see what I mean.
But there a re a lot of things to think about and reflect.
For one: the importance of reading aloud - or better, to have books read to you, as kids but not only then ...

I am currently reading the bit (quite close to the beginning) about how our brains decode those symbols on paper and on the the different schools of thought on how perceptions, decoding, imagination, memory works.

I love that it comes with images of the various modell's that da Vinci or Aristoteles or al-Haytam came up with in order to illustrate their theories.

LauraT wrote: "THat's right: there are parts that are a bit boring; the whole of the book moreover is not tight, if you see what I mean.
But there a re a lot of things to think about and reflect.
For one: the imp..."

I agree with you completely, Laura. I do like the points of reflections a lot.

Jenny wrote: "I am currently reading the bit (quite close to the beginning) about how our brains decode those symbols on paper and on the the different schools of thought on how perceptions, decoding, imaginatio..."

Yes! That was very interesting.

I am in the middle of the chapter 'The Silent Reader' and was surprised to find out that the tradition of reading happened used to be a mainly oral tradition, as in: happening out loud, and not just for purposes of sharing the text, but in general. The idea of what a library might have sounded like!

It made me think about the fact, that there are quite a few texts that really benefit from being spoken and heard rather than being silently consumed, and apart from the obvious: plays, that to me also applies to very challenging texts. I found it really helpful to read 'Ulysses' out loud for example, or 'Paradise Lost', because it helps me understand what I am reading. Verse in general really profits too I think, as you get a much better sense of the rhythm and musicality of it.

Jenny wrote: "I am in the middle of the chapter 'The Silent Reader' and was surprised to find out that the tradition of reading happened used to be a mainly oral tradition, as in: happening out loud, and not jus..."

I was really happy about that because I sometimes like reading aloud - of course I have to be alone otherwise poeplo think I'm out of my mind! I really think that writing comes from speacking.

Has some of you reached the chapter about Aldo Manuzio?
I'm so proud of this compatriote of mine. He was a real humanist and, for his times of course, he really whidened the reading public through his works - and here we could start a discussion on how, or if, the material support influences what it is written within; i sicerely think that it does, to a certain extent.
I have an "aldina" one of his book printed in Venice in the XVI Century, and I cuddle it as a little baby - it is little indeed!

I am not there yet, whereabout in the book is it? I will let you know once I get there!

More or less in the middle, but I don't have the book with me anymore! Will I survive this month?

You will!!!!

Hope so!

Jenny wrote: "I am in the middle of the chapter 'The Silent Reader' and was surprised to find out that the tradition of reading happened used to be a mainly oral tradition, as in: happening out loud, and not jus..."

Yes! That surprised me too. I first heard about that on Stephen Fry's show QI.

Also, I was reading a bit of Anais Nin's diary this morning and she talked about how she went to a party where they read Joyce's Finnegan's Wake out loud. I must say, I do get a different feel of a story when it's read out loud.

Has anyone else finished this book yet? I have to admit that I needed to push myself past the middle section, as I lost interest due to the writing style. There was lots of good info in amongst the lengthy writing, but for a book about the history of reading I much preferred Planet Word which I read a couple of years ago.

I am still reading it, dipping in and out and am still within the first third of the book. Like this I am really enjoying it. But I will let you know once I have finished it.