This history of reading goes from the earliest examples of the clay tablets and cuneiform of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt to today's digital revolution. It argues that it is the demands of the reader, acting alongside the will of the writer, that is the evolutionary motor of literary genres.

This volume takes readers on a thought-provoking tour of the 20th century, through the medium of the printed word. Here readers will find over 150 pivotal works organized into topical categories, reflecting themes that have informed the century.

What would you find if you went back and re-read all of your favourite books from childhood? Francis Spufford discovers both delight and sadness, in this memoir of a boy who retreats into books, faced with a tragedy in his family.

The author is the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of Fanny Hill , and who once found herself poring over a 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only thing in her apartment that she had not read at least twice. This title recounts her lifelong obsession with books.

Inspired by a landmark exhibition mounted by the British Museum in 1963 to celebrate five eventful centuries of the printed word, this book offers a consideration of writings that have made things happen in the world, works that have both nudged the course of history and fired the imagination of countless influential people.

A volume of notes, impressions of travel, of friends, of public and private events - elicited by the author's reading.