Proust and the Squid

The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

By: Maryanne Wolf

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Interweaving her vast knowledge of neurology, sociology, psychology, and philosophy with fascinating down-to-earth examples and lively personal anecdotes, developmental psychologist, neuroscientist, and dyslexia expert Wolf probes the question, "How do we learn to read and write?" This ambitious and provocative new book offers an impassioned look at reading, its effect on our lives, and explains why it matters so greatly in a digital era.

©2007 Maryanne Wolf (P)2008 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Wolf's alarm about the spread of semi- literacy among the young is obviously justified, and her book provokes thought about it as only reading can." ( Sunday Times London)
"Blindingly fascinating...detailed and scholarly....There's a lot of difficult material in here. But it's worth the effort....For people interested in language, this is a must. You'll find yourself focusing on words in new ways. Read it slowly--it will take time to sink in." ( The Sunday Telegraph)

I want to buy this for every teacher I know! A must read for every educator.

Outstanding reading performance! Brilliant compilation and discussion! A book with the potential to shape many lives for the better!

Great read

I think this book is a great book for anyone who wants to know more about reading, language, and learning. It attacks the topic on so many levels that even if you had a PhD in the topic you would learn something. However, its vocabulary beaks down these topics into a book that could be read by anyone! I truly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend you at least give it a try!

Deserves your full attention

Listening to this on audio did a disservice to the book. There were several times Wolf asked us to read passages and reflect on what we experienced that I could not engage with because I listened to and did not read the passages.
The first and last thirds were interesting but I got lost during the middle section about how people learn to read. This book explains some complicated processes that I would need to read over and over again to understand and this is difficult when listening while driving. So if you are really interested, you should get a paper copy.
I am unsure if the book would have held my attention enough to finish if I had read a paper copy instead. I think it could benefit from more of an overarching personal storyline of how the reader came to learn about how reading works in her own education/research. This would hold my attention much more to be able to make sense of the dry facts as part of her inquiry into the subject.
I picked up this book because I am interested in learning and teaching in general and it held my interest enough to finish the audiobook. The first section about the history of reading actually made me very curious and happy so the book was worth it for that section alone.

Fascinating

This book will be of particular interest to anyone in education, but also enjoyable for those who just love reading. The narrator is excellent. Highly recommended.

You are getting sleepy, very sleepy . . .

This book is about learning reading and writing, from the past to the present, ending with an explanation of learning disorders. Much of it is very good and interesting, but the reader sounds like her target audience is small children. It's a danger to listen to while driving because it puts me to sleep.

Compelling, heartwarming, and thought provoking.

I thoroughly enjoyed every part of this exploration of the reading mind. I recommend highly.

Interesting way to learn about reading

This is a broad history of the development of reading for what I assume expect would be a person interested in the academic side of reading. Vs someone looking for a specific relationship to a reading problem in their loved one. It was very interesting but to be clear there are no answers or suggestions.

Four Stars

In a brilliant move, Audible requires a full review in order to rate an audiobook. This is it.

Worth the Effort

"Proust and the Squid" is the title of this book, but I am not certain why. Here, Maryanne Wolf sets out to describe how reading came into being, the human brains adaptation to accommodate that process, and how children learn to read. This is well worth the listeners' time and will reward the effort, but it has little to do with Prouse (or squid for that matter).

That said, there are passages which are technical. Those are handled well by Wolf and I hope that she will continue to write for the general public. Over time, she will develop a lighter style. Her topic is certainly important to all of us and she needs to heard.

I personally want to hear more about her theories concerning how access to Google, the World Wide Web and other technology will change our culture and how we process information. She hints at changes that might be on the horizon, but left me wanting to hear more.

The second half of the book is devoted to dyslexia. I benefited greatly from hearing what she has to say. However, the second half did really link to the sections which preceeded. The first and second sections were related to "reading" but could have been separate works. I hope that she will develop a book on dyslexia alone. She speculates that the human brain has adapted to accommodate reading. The dyslexia is a through back to the past. I would like to know more.

what a great book

I was amazed at how captivating would a book on reading be, at how enlightening some of the facts about the culture and the neurology of reading are.
I was amazed at the number of times I have cited this book since reading it. It seems to be relevant to so many areas of our lives and our culture, as if reading is a metaphor for everything else.
I highly recommend this gem of a book. The writing is great, the reading is great, the lesson learnt is amazing.