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A new, compelling collection of essays by Sven Birkerts, " one of America' s most distinguished, eloquent servants of the poetry and fiction that matter" (Susan Sontag) "Reading, the mind' s traffic in signs and signifiers, is the most dynamic, changeful, and possibly transformational act we can imagine. To have read a work and have been strongly affected by it-- and then to come back to it after many years-- can be a foundation-shaking enterprise." In "Reading Life," virtuoso critic and essayist Sven Birkerts examines what it means to return to resonant works of fiction-- the books one thinks of " covetously, as private properties, " the " personal signposts" of one' s inner life. For Birkerts, these include "The Catcher in the Rye," "Humboldt' s Gift," "To the Lighthouse," and "Lolita," In twelve far-reaching and intimate essays, Birkerts reflects upon his first readings and what later encounters reveal about time, memory, and the murmuring transistors of selfhood.