A reader on reading - Alberto Manguel 2010
Sources
“I know that!” Alice cried eagerly. “You take some
flour-”
“Where do you pick the flower?” the White Queen
asked.
Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 9
The pieces collected in this book have appeared, in a different form, in a number of publications, or were delivered as lectures, as follows:
“A Reader in the Looking-Glass Wood”: Alberto Manguel, Into the Looking-Glass Wood (Toronto: Knopf, 1998)
“Room for the Shadow”: Writing Life: Celebrated Canadian and International Authors on Writing and Life, ed. Constance Rooke (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2006)
“On Being Jewish”: Published as “A Lost Sense of Belonging in No Man’s Land,” The Independent (London), 18 September 1994
“Meanwhile, in Another Part of the Forest”: Foreword to Meanwhile, In Another Part of the Forest: Gay Stories from Alice Munro to Yukio Mishima, ed. Alberto Manguel and Craig Stephenson (Toronto: Knopf, 1993)
“The Further off from England”: Bad Trips, ed. Keith Fraser (New York: Vintage, 1991)
“Homage to Proteus”: Lecture, Passa Porta Festival, Brussels, 26—29 March 2009
“Borges in Love”: Alberto Manguel, Into the Looking-Glass Wood (Toronto: Knopf, 1998)
“Borges and the Longed-For Jew”: Published as “Borges and the Jews,” The Jewish Chronicle (London), 9 February 2007, Literary Supplement
“Faking It”: Published as “Contributing Editor’s Column,” Descant 140 / Improvisations (Toronto), vol. 39, no. 1 (Spring 2008)
“The Death of Che Guevara”: Published as “Hero of Our Time,” Times Literary Supplement, 2 May 1997
“The Blind Bookkeeper”: Delivered as the Northrop Frye/Antonine Maillet Lecture, Moncton, New Brunswick, 26 April 2008
“The Perseverance of Truth”: Hrant Dink Lecture, University of Ankara, 6 March 2009
“AIDS and the Poet”: PEN International lecture, London, 1997
“The Full Stop”: New York Times, 18 April 1999
“In Praise of Words”: The Spectator (London), 10 March 2001
“A Brief History of the Page”: Conference paper, The Future of the Page, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, 20 June 2000
“The Voice That Says ’I’”: Lecture, Turin Book Fair, 18—19 May 2009
“Final Answers”: Published in French as an introduction to the Opera du Rhin, Strasbourg, 2006 season, Autumn 2006
“What Song the Sirens Sang”: Conference paper, Dante’s Women, Ravenna, September 2008
“Notes Towards a Definition of the Ideal Reader”: Conference paper, The Ideal Reader, Maison des écrivains étrangers et des traducteurs de Saint Nazaire (MEET), Saint Nazaire, France, February 2003
“How Pinocchio Learned to Read”: Conference paper, originally given in French as “Comment Pinocchio apprit à lire,” Et pourquoi pas un éloge de la lecture? Actes des 13es Journées d’Arole, Bibliothèques de la Ville La Chaux-de-Fond, Lausanne, Institut suisse Jeunesse et Médias, 14—15 November 2003
“Candide in Sanssouci”: Conference paper, originally given in German as “Den alles Fleisch es ist wie das Grass,” Einstein Forum, Potsdam, 26 June 2003
“The Gates of Paradise”: Introduction to The Gates of Paradise: The Anthology of Erotic Short Fiction, ed. Alberto Manguel (Toronto: Walter & Ross,
“Time and the Doleful Knight”: Published in Spanish as “El reloj de Don Quijote,” Matador (Madrid), vol. 50 (2008)
“Saint Augustine’s Computer”: Lecture, Times Literary Supplement Lecture, Hay-on-Wye, 29 May 1997; first published Times Literary Supplement, 4 July 1997
“Reading White for Black”: Published as “No Minor Art,” Index on Censorship (London) (March-April 1996)
“The Secret Sharer”: Saturday Night (Toronto), vol. 102 (July 1987)
“Honoring Enoch Soames”: Published as “The Writers’ Wish List,” New York Times, 8 September 1998
“Jonah and the Whale”: Lecture, Banff Centre for the Arts Lecture, Banff, Alberta, 30 August 1996
“The Legend of the Dodos”: Published in French in Le Monde, 23 March 2006
“In Memoriam”: Alberto Manguel, Into the Looking-Glass Wood (Toronto: Knopf, 1998)
“God’s Spies”: Introduction to God’s Spies: Stories in Defiance of Oppression, ed. Albert Manguel (Toronto: Macfarlane Walter and Ross, 1999)
“Once Again, Troy”: Lebanon, Lebanon, ed. Anna Wilson (London: Saqi, 2006)
“Art and Blasphemy”: Geist (Vancouver), vol. 60 (Spring 2006)
“At the Mad Hatter’s Table”: Conference paper, Folly, The British Comparative Literature Association, Eleventh International Conference, 2—5 July 2007, Goldsmiths College, University of London
“Notes Towards a Definition of the Ideal Library”: Previously unpublished
“The Library of the Wandering Jew”: Published as “The Exile’s Library,” The Guardian, 21 February 2009
“The Library as Home”: Published as “A 30,000-Volume Window on the World,” New York Times, 15 May 2008
“The End of Reading”: Lecture, Adam Helms Lecture, Stockholm University, Stockholm, 21 April 2009