Maryanne Wolf

"Human beings were never born to read," writes Tufts University cognitive neuroscientist and child development expert Maryanne Wolf. Reading is a human invention that reflects how the brain rearranges itself to learn something new. In this ambitious, provocative book, Wolf chronicles the remarkable journey of the reading brain not only over the past five thousand years, since writing began, but also over the course of a single child's life, showing in the process why children with dyslexia have reading difficulties and singular gifts. Lively, erudite, and rich with examples, Proust and the Squid asserts that the brain that examined the tiny clay tablets of the Sumerians was a very different brain from the one that is immersed in today's technology-driven literacy. The potential transformations in this changed reading brain, Wolf argues, have profound implications for every child and for the intellectual development of our species.

The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

Proust and the Squid

The act of reading is a miracle. Every new reader's brain possesses the extraordinary capacity to rearrange itself beyond its original abilities in order to understand written symbols. But how does the brain learn to read? As world-renowned cognitive neuroscientist and scholar of reading Maryanne Wolf explains in this impassioned book, we taught our brain to read only a few thousand years ago, and in the process changed the intellectual evolution of our species. Wolf tells us that the brain that examined tiny clay tablets in the cuneiform script of the Sumerians is configured differently from the brain that reads alphabets or of one literate in today's technology. There are critical implications to such an evolving brain. Just as writing reduced the need for memory, the proliferation of information and the particular requirements of digital culture may short-circuit some of written language's unique contributions—with potentially profound consequences for our future. Turning her attention to the development of the individual reading brain, Wolf draws on her expertise in dyslexia to investigate what happens when the brain finds it difficult to read. Interweaving her vast knowledge of neuroscience, psychology, literature, and linguistics, Wolf takes the reader from the brains of a pre-literate Homer to a literacy-ambivalent Plato, from an infant listening to Goodnight Moon to an expert reader of Proust, and finally to an often misunderstood child with dyslexia whose gifts may be as real as the challenges he or she faces. As we come to appreciate how the evolution and development of reading have changed the very arrangement of our brain and our intellectual life, we begin to realize with ever greater comprehension that we truly are what we read. Ambitious, provocative, and rich with examples, Proust and the Squid celebrates reading, one of the single most remarkable inventions in history. Once embarked on this magnificent story of the reading brain, you will never again take for granted your ability to absorb the written word.

Interesting research and implications for the future of our brains, but doesn’t keep you engaged. The middle third of the book drags a bit. 

Pratik M

Lots of information about reading. Not much more than that. Fascinating, but managed to get a little bit dull at times. 

BC Hark

Sarah Sammis

Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf is a tricky book to review. It's a book I wanted to read it since it came out. I can't even remember where I first heard about it. Given its topic, the biology behind human reading, I probably heard about it on NPR or somewhere similar. Not a month after reading it off my wishlist, per my on-going reading resolution, I had to re-read it for my course on materials for children ages 5 to 8.

Maryanne Wolf is the Director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University. Her other books have been aimed at the science community but Proust and the Squid is a more generalized book has sixty pages of endnotes but no inline citations nor footnotes. While these missing citations do make the text flow more like a novel, I would prefer to have them so I can more easily decide if I want to read further on subjects or points made in the book.

The central thesis is that reading is not natural. There hasn't been enough time for reading to have evolved as something hardwired into the brain. Yet, for people who find reading easy, take the complex mechanism behind the miracle for granted.

I can remember some aha moments in the early days of learning to read, like the time I asked what why there was an apostrophe in "o'clock" and learned that it really meant "of the clock." The fact that my own language could have these lazy moments built into it that we were some how just supposed to know, both fascinated and enraged me. I felt like things were rigged!

Another interesting observation about reading is the difference in brain activity between morpheme based languages (such as English) and logosyllabary (such as Chinese). They apparently activate different pieces of the brain and hybrid languages, like Japanese use both regions as needed. This part caught my attention as my children are both learning Chinese in school.

The book is best when it sticks to the science of reading. Every so often, especially early on in the book, Wolf waxes poetic about her own love of reading or what I as a reader is experiencing while reading the passages she has selected in her book. These parts while they set up the backdrop for the research can be skimmed or skipped (unless you are also reading the book for school).

'We were never born to read' begins Maryanne Wolf in this pathbreaking exploration of how our brains learnt to read. 'No specific genes ever dictated reading's development. Human beings invented reading only a few thousand years ago. And with this invention, we changed the very organization of our brain, which in turn expanded the ways we were able to think, which altered the intellectual evolution of our species'. From the history of the earliest known examples of written language, to whether reading online really is making us 'stupider', and why dyslexia can be a gift, "Proust and the Squid" will ensure you never again take for granted your ability to absorb the written word.

Yash

Interesting expositional read interlaced with personal anecdotes written by Professor Maryanne Wolf exploring on the beauty of the learning brain and its developments. Extensive multidisciplinary explorations involving history, neuroscience, psychology, education even archaeology while maintains a curious, clever tone through the book. Recommended if cognitive science is your jam

Nelson Zagalo

An interesting book divided in three great sections: history, learning and pathologies. The first one is the most fascinating, because Wolf digs deep into the history of reading, questioning some of our basic assumptions of today's daily lives. In the second one Wolf works around the human brain changes produced by the learning to read, and in the last one she gives an account of the problems surrounding dislexia.

The first half is highly enjoying, however throughout the explanation of our reading biology she looses our interest. It could be because of excess of technicality, or just because of the lack of matter and depth. Having a full section on dislexia is too much, more even when the subject is treated throughout the entire section in the same manner, just talking about the psychological dramas faced by kids with the problem. 

The best of the book is the discussion on Socrates arguments against writing, where Wolf excels in justifying the effects of reading and writing in human brain and culture, which justifies the appearance of Proust in the title. However I was expecting more, we finish the book with just some interesting lines and anecdotes on reading, not much for an entire book on the subject.

Nadine 

I've been meaning to read this forever and I'm so glad I finally got to it. It's a wonderful tour-de-force of the history, psychology, neuroscience and teaching of reading.

Proust and the Squid The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

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