Mangel is a true dilettante and a man who truly knows where to be, when it comes to reading. He is a jew, risen in Argentina, but has traveled all over the world. As a teenager he read to Borges, who was already blind, so he could enjoy not only the reading, but the comments, too! He speaks several languajes and has lived in France, Canada, Israel...
The book makes a comprehensive history of the act of reading, is not a chronological history of how writing was invented, but more about the meaning of writing and reading to the person and to civilisation. He has built an essay on culture, on how culture is built on the shoulders of reading and writing. He coves from Sumer to Paris, from Buenos Aires to Pennsylvania. His knowledge is ample and superb. He goes from St Agustine to Walt Whitman, from Virgil to Kafka, and back again.
In the end, one is happy, truly elated to be able to read, to share this experience with so many people.
The book is also superbly illustrated, and one wonders how the author has managed to get hold (and to set in place) so much wisdom.
A true intelectual and esthetic joy.