Read history

Author: Alberto Manguel (Canada), translated by Wu Changjie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-05-01
Features: The readers of this book—I am unwittingly joining its family—expand or focus on a function we all commonly possess. Reading the letters on the pages is just one of its many facets. Astronomers read a star chart that no longer exists; zoologists read the scent trails of animals in the forest; dancers read the choreographer's notation, while the audience reads the dancers' movements on stage; parents read the baby's gestures to detect joy, terror, or curiosity; Chinese fortune-tellers read the markings on ancient turtle shells; lovers blindly read their beloved's bodies under the covers at night; Hawaiian fishermen plunge their hands into the sea to read the currents; farmers read the sky to predict the weather. All these acts of reading share with the readers of books the skill of interpreting and translating symbols. In every case, it is the reader who reads the meaning; it is the reader who permits or acknowledges that things, places, or events possess a certain readability; it is the reader who feels compelled to attribute meaning to a system of symbols and then interpret it. We all read ourselves and the world around us in order to gain a slight understanding of ourselves and our surroundings. We read to comprehend or to be enlightened. We have no choice but to read. Reading is almost as fundamental as breathing—it is one of our basic functions.