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The Traveler, The Tower, And The Worm: The Reader As MetaphorStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionAs far as one can tell, human beings are the only species for which the world seems made up of stories, Alberto Manguel writes. We read the book of the world in many guises: we may be travelers, advancing through its pages like pilgrims heading toward enlightenment. We may be recluses, withdrawing through our reading into our own ivory towers. Or we may devour our books like burrowing worms, not to benefit from the wisdom they contain but merely to stuff ourselves with countless words. With consummate grace and extraordinary breadth, the best-selling author of A History of Reading and The Library at Night considers the chain of metaphors that have described readers and their relationships to the text-that-is-the-world over a span of four millennia. Author descriptionAlberto Manguel is the award-winning author of numerous books celebrating the written word, including bestsellers A History of Reading, The Library at Night, and The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. Table of contentsIntroduction Chapter 1. The Reader as Traveler: Reading as Recognition of the World Chapter 2. The Reader in the Ivory Tower: Reading as Alienation from the World Chapter 3. The Bookworm: The Reader as Inventor of the World Conclusion: Reading to Live Notes Acknowledgments |