Reading Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/tag/reading/ a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:17:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.publicbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-favicon-2-300x300.png Reading Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/tag/reading/ 32 32 This Is Your Brain on Books https://www.publicbooks.org/this-is-your-brain-on-books/ Wed, 22 Nov 2023 16:00:21 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=54302 “Reading occupies a strange position in today’s world, being at once physiologically unnecessary and culturally central.”

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]]> Slanting the History of Handwriting https://www.publicbooks.org/slanting-the-history-of-handwriting/ Wed, 09 Aug 2023 15:00:49 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=53013 Whatever writing is today, it is not self-evident.

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]]> Reading after the University https://www.publicbooks.org/reading-after-the-university-english-departments/ Wed, 23 Nov 2022 16:00:26 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=50860 If you want to support readers, the best hope will always be helping do away with economic compulsion and the division of labor.

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]]> Audiobooks: Every Minute Counts https://www.publicbooks.org/audiobooks-consumption-data/ Wed, 05 Oct 2022 15:00:17 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=49411 People who use audiobooks are expanding what reading is and can be. But they are also incentivizing publishers to change, in unexpected ways.

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]]> The Text: Do Not Disturb https://www.publicbooks.org/the-text-do-not-disturb/ Thu, 28 Jul 2022 15:00:34 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=49207 Does loving a work of literature mean seizing it? How should critics feel about their feelings toward a text?

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]]> What Is a Book? https://www.publicbooks.org/what-is-a-book/ Tue, 04 Jan 2022 16:00:21 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=46866 The “papers” of Toni Morrison can be accessed through a Princeton computer terminal. But where do these digital drafts end, and Beloved begin?

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]]> Imagination or Regulation? Challenging the Incorporation of Antiracism as a Response to Crisis https://www.publicbooks.org/imagination-or-regulation-challenging-the-incorporation-of-antiracism-as-a-response-to-crisis/ Wed, 10 Nov 2021 16:00:20 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=46086 The way we talk about racial justice matters. In fact, corporation’s embrace of antiracist slogans can actually advance racism.

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]]> Freedom Education https://www.publicbooks.org/freedom-education/ Mon, 04 Oct 2021 15:00:41 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=45705 An educated public grew out of freedom, W. E. B. Du Bois claimed. And education was also freedom’s surest protector.

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]]> How to Read like a Translator https://www.publicbooks.org/how-to-read-like-a-translator/ Fri, 17 Sep 2021 15:00:43 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=45263 To work as a translator is to encounter a text with an active desire in mind, a desire that both constitutes and modifies the way that text is experienced.

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]]> Stop Reading like a Critic https://www.publicbooks.org/stop-reading-like-a-critic/ Thu, 14 Jan 2021 16:00:20 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=40556 Think about your favorite book. Now ask yourself: Would you admit this to others? Most would share—but literature professors are not most people.

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