A San Francisco Chronicle and Kirkus Best Book of the Year

A gorgeously unique, fully illustrated exploration into the phenomenology of reading--how we visualize images from reading works of literature, from one of our very best book jacket designers, himself a passionate reader.

What do we see when we read? Did Tolstoy really describe Anna Karenina? Did Melville ever really tell us what, exactly, Ishmael looked like? The collection of fragmented images on a page--a graceful ear there, a stray curl, a hat positioned just so--and other clues and signifiers helps us to create an image of a character. But in fact our sense that we know a character intimately has little to do with our ability to concretely picture our beloved--or reviled--literary figures. In this remarkable work of nonfiction, Knopf's Associate Art Director Peter Mendelsund combines his profession, as an award-winning designer; his first career, as a classically trained pianist; and his first love, literature--he considers himself first and foremost as a reader--into what is sure to be one of the most provocative and unusual investigations into how we understand the act of reading.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 08/05/2014
ISBN: 9780804171632
Pages: 419
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.40w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2014
Booklist 07/01/2014 pg. 4
Shelf Awareness 08/05/2014
Library Journal 09/01/2014 pg. 107
Publishers Weekly 09/29/2014
Kirkus Best Nonfiction 12/01/2014 pg. 36