Biblio Curious's Reviews > What We See When We Read

This book is the pinnacle of 'show don't tell.' It's written & illustrated by a highly regarded book cover designer. 2 of his designs that I'm fascinated by are The Kafka Covers, you know which ones. They have the creepy eyes on them. And the James Joyce books, the minimalist covers with the corrections as part of the design.

Mendelsund designed a book that shows us what we see, when we read. It's so literal the pages of Dickens' opening lines for Bleak House drift into London's Fog. We can easily read the 1st page of Joyce's Ulysses until the fonts collapse into our consciousness and all we see on the page are a blur of tiny text shrinking then crashing into itself.

Stuffed between these elaborately designed typography are almost academic essays. He gives more information than a newbie can handle so we can take a breather and read the pictures he creates for us. It's a book to return to again and again. And one to experience for a lifetime.

If you're interested in understanding the experience of reading, this could be a great introductory book for the topic. It's more accessible than a traditional textbook. And more enjoyable than an online lecture.

I'm curious how high schoolers would perceive this book? Teens today are raised with cell phones and don't know a world without the internet. So their opinions on this book would be so unique compared to us dinosaurs who were raised with card catalogues.

I'll certainly link a blog post here with some recommendations of phenomenology books he brings up in this one (as footnotes of course).

My Review:
What We See When We Read
Images We Can Read
http://www.biblioatlas.com/2018/07/wh...