📚 A Surprising — and Magical — History of Reading

Matt Karamazov
10 min readJul 27, 2023

One of my absolute favorite “books about books,” from the man who used to read to the blind Jorge Luis Borges

Image: The Reading Life

đź“š Hey, good evening!

You can easily judge this book by its cover because it’s exactly what it says it is: a history of reading!

But it’s not THE history of reading, because, as the author Alberto Manguel says, the personal, intimate relationship between the solitary reader and their books can never be generalized to represent the complete “History of Reading.”

There can only be a history of reading, but this is one of the best books you’re ever likely to find on the subject.

Lately, I’ve been loving Why I Read, by Wendy Lesser, and The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, by Alan Jacobs, is one of my favorite books, but you can’t go wrong with Manguel’s book either!

Below, I share a short summary of A History of Reading, by Alberto Manguel, as well as my complete book notes, along with some additional recommended reading.

There are lots of incredible literary surprises to be found in this book, so let’s get into it!

If you love books and you love to read, then you might like…

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Matt Karamazov
Matt Karamazov

Written by Matt Karamazov

🥇 The Most Disciplined Man on the Planet 📚 Read 1,329 Books in Just 10 Years 💪🏻 Strong Believer in Human Potential ⤵️ https://thereadinglife.beehiiv.com/

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