I found this book fascinating! It gives you an exhaustive description of all the factors behind the transition from reading aloud to silent reading and the outcomes of such a transition. Also, if your curiosity is aroused and leaves you wanting for more, you will find plenty of references to follow. I'm only giving it three stars; first because of the lack of illustrations, as already pointed out in previous comments. This would have been really useful to a novice like me. And secondly because of the writing style. I just found myself scratching my head a few to many times. Maybe this kind of writing is out of my league but I did however find many explanations about the scratching in Pinker's Sense of Style. Altogether, this is a terrific book and will give you plenty of good conversations. ( )

Straightforward, to the point and not afraid to back up large statements with exhaustive research? I'm in.

I read this on a whim (which are usually pretty fantastic) and had almost to drag my way from one time period and geographic area to the next, as the catalogs of characteristics were completely overwhelming. Since I'd slogged through Hugo's discussion of the Battle of Waterloo twice, I knew that if I kept on the effort would be repaid.

It was absolutely necessary to pay that kind of attention to the text, because Saenger paid that much attention to the texts he was talking about and that was entirely the point: the differences seem meaningless, the similarities convenient, but in their synthesis and with careful observation something new and real becomes clear.

This is not a book of sociology; the social aspects of reading are acknowledged, but not the focus at all. This is a work of science and well worth the read (it has cropped up in conversations and considerations more than any other book I've read in the last 5 years). ( )