Acts of Reading. Tracks of Reading. Snacks of Reading.

"Reading means approaching something that is just coming into being." -Italo Calvino [pg. 25]
Most of you reading my blogs will begin to notice that I like lists, lists help me organize my thoughts and make sense of all of them when I finally complete a work. I've always been a visual learner from mapping out my papers to making countless shopping lists to get me through the day, because of this Manguel's comment, "Reading begins with the eyes." immediately jumped out to me.

• "Reading begins with the eyes." At first glance this seems like an obvious statement, but at a closer look it draws a lot of attention. Reading with your eyes, unlike hearing a work of literature helps you better understand the material in front of you.
• Reading with your eyes also better connects to your memory, as mentioned on page 30. Using my eyes, and re reading and re reading in order to memorize has always been very helpful to me.

When using the definition of a book used by Maguel, you can define it as an established artifact in different forms. In example,

• Music- sheet music, notes
• Dance- choreographed routine marks
• Sports- the play book
• People's faces- emotions
• The sky- weather

Reading is always written in the present tense because the story is happening as you read it, this goes back to he argument of whether the writer or he reader is master. Points in this argument could be as follows

• The reader is master because the interpretation lies in their hands
• The writer MAKES you think
• The reader CHOOSES what to think about it

My favorite and final point that stuck out to me during the reading is that of "We all read a different book". No two books are exactly the same. This, to be honest, sent me into a confusing spiral of thought. 

• Reading a stop sign vs. reading and perceiving literature (Al-Haytham, p. 33) You have no choice but to read the stop sign, to sit down and read a book, on the other hand, is optional 
• Also your brain, so used to reading, attempts to make sense of random symbols or gibberish (p. 37)

M.A.N.G.U.E.L.

English literature is something rather new to me, English composition is more my style. Although I have read countless works throughout my lifetime, I've never analyzed and thought about what i'm reading from every possible point of view. With Manguel's A History of Reading, I feel like my eyes are being open to multiple points of view so far from those who have had their right to read taken away from them. 

Some things I learned from, not only, Manguel, but also from our discussion in class were...

• Reading is knowledge and knowledge is power
• So when reading is being taken away from people, the authoritative figures taking the books away are trying to state their authority
• Censorship
• "You say it how I say it or I do not hear it at all."
• If there is a power to something, it has the potential to be taken away
• Reading vs. Writing- they are NOT the same
• "I am not alone"
• Reading brings people from all over together
• "Who should be the master? The writer or the reader?"