A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books

by Alberto Manguel

Hardcover, 2004

Status

Available

Call number

818.5403

Collection

Publication

Farrar Straus Giroux (2004), 224 pages

Description

"While traveling in Canada, Alberto Manguel was struck by how the novel he was reading (Goethe's Elective Affinities) seemed to mirror the social chaos of the world he was living in. An article in the daily paper would be suddenly illuminated by a passage in the novel; a long meditation would be prompted by a single word. He decided to keep a record of these moments, rereading a book a month and forming A Reading Diary: a volume of notes, reflections, and impressions of travel, of friends, of events public and private, all elicited by his reading." "From Don Quixote (August) to The Island of Dr. Moreau (February) to Kim (April), Manguel leads us on an enthralling adventure in literature and life, and demonstrates how, for the passionate reader, one is utterly inextricable from the other."--Jacket.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jwhenderson
Life and literature are seldom closer than in the writings of Alberto Manguel. In this personal book he relates his experience of reading over the course of one year. It is a compendium of notes , reflections, and impressions of both reading and travel, his life and friendships as illuminated by
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his reading. This "Diary" can be read as a memoir or used as a reference guide to one's own reading. The texts are all worthwhile; I found some old favorites, new authors and classic texts all within Manguel's reading annual. This little book, slightly more than two hundred pages, has Rabelaisian qualities confined in a little space. There are lists, wide-ranging comments, thoughts, statements, beliefs, pronouncements, and a veritable litany of the delights of living the reading life.
The subtitle of the book, "A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books", captures the essence of the text. For Manguel is a "passionate reader" in every sense of that phrase and his reflections are illuminating. I would welcome further annuals like this, and find myself challenged to make my own. For like the author, I consider myself a "passionate reader".
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LibraryThing member benjclark
Wonderful! Manguel takes us with him through Don Quixote, The Wind in the Willows, and many more. Another Manguel book to be savored.
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Got through it, with a lot of skimming. An apt & revealing sample from a bit in which Manguel lists evaluations of memoirs: Auden, quoting an Icelandic proverb: 'Every man enjoys the smell of his own farts.'""

Awards

Grinzane Cavour Prize (Non-Fiction — 2007)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2004

Physical description

8.25 inches

ISBN

0374247420 / 9780374247423

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