A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel

A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel

This is a collection of short essays by Alberto Manguel. Alberto Manguel wrote The Dictionary of Imaginary Places and was an editor for many years. He muses on his own identity as a reader by talking about many personal issues on reading. He has an essay of the Legend of the Wandering Jew as a reader as well as comments on Jorge Luis Borges defense of Jewish culture. The author is Argentinian and pulls from the South American literary tradition.

He opens many of the essays with a quote from Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass and a picture from one of these books. This adds an inquisitive quality to the essays. I like many of his quotes and thoughts from Borges because Borges was a librarian and a fantasist in the tradition of magical realism. The essays remind me of thoughts that might have come out of The Phantom Tollbooth or Un Lun Dun.

Most of the essays are about the the experience of reading and being a reader. I especially liked the essay on Don Quixote, entitled Time and The Doleful Knight on Pp. 182-186. I can relate to Cervantes even though I have not read him..

Alberto Manguel attempts to list the qualities of the ideal reader and the ideal writer in two separate essays. They are quite delightful, even though I would not agree with many of them. Alberto Manguel has a deep relationship with books. He has a personal library of some 30,000 books. He wrote about this in an earlier book, The Library At Night.

There is also some discussion of technology in this book. The essay, Saint Augustine's Computer on Pp. 187-198 describes the differences between the printed word and the word on the screen. They are quite significant. He claims the printed word is less ephemeral and easier to subject to deep analysis than what appears on a computer screen.

Some of the issues in the book are quite political. Alberto Manguel grew up under Peron's government. He describes many of the problems with literature, writing, and reading that occur under repressive regimes. He also discusses Che Guevara and his impact on literature. This makes for some interesting, if a bit pointed commentary.

There is a lot to recommend in this book. It has a well done index, a very extensive bibliography, and a nice feel to the book. The book is set in Fourier Type and is quite easy to read. It is printed by Yale University Press. It is an excellent book that is well worth reading.

Daily Thoughts 3/24/2010

Rudyard Kipling, 1899

Daily Thoughts 3/24/2010

I finished reading A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel. I was thinking about Borges today and I tried looking up The Library of Babel. In an odd coincidence, I found out that the nickname for the Ellis Island library in its early days was nicknamed the "Tower of Babel". There are some images with these words in the New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

Please excuse me for not writing as much today. I am resting right now, drinking tea. I really enjoyed reading Alberto Manguel. He reminds me what it means to devotes ones life to books.

Daily Thoughts 3/23/2010

Imaginary Picture of Aristophanes who was bald, 1896

Daily Thoughts 3/23/2010

I am going to read How Philosophy Can Save Your Life: 10 Ideas That Matter Most by Marietta McCarty. It caught my attention when I was going through the new books. It also has some very nice reviews. It is a book of practical philosophy, or philosophy put into every day use.

I read some more of Alberto Manguel A Reader on Reading. Each chapter is a separate essay on reading. In one of the essays he describes a variation on Borges infinite library. It is a single volume with infinitely thin pages which comprise all knowledge. Alberto Manguel makes the observation that is very similar to an ebook. I thought this was interesting.

Daily Thoughts 3/22/2010

Beatus Rhenanus author and editor. Albert Manguel used this image in A History of Reading.

Daily Thoughts 3/22/2010

I skipped a day to get some extra rest. Right now, I am reading Alberto Manguel, A Reader on Reading. Alberto Manguel is famous for having written The Dictionary of Imaginary Places which is quite entertaining. The opening chapter is on Alice In Wonderland which is one of the best fantasy books ever written.

I am reading about Callimachus who was the first bibliographer and cataloger for the Library of Alexandria. He invented the first subject headings in his Pinakes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinakes_(tables) . It is a nice reminder that there were great libraries before our time. Supposedly, the Library of Alexandria had some 500,000 volumes.

While reading Library Journal, I came across this article. It is about Opencourseware and the need for libraries in a virtual university. It seems people providing information to students in the online environment is being pushed aside. Libraries are being removed from the equation. It is quite interesting, and in some ways disappointing. MIT Opencourseware are classes designed to be taken for free over the internet. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6723299.html