(Untitled)

[kerala_rain]

friends... Can anyone help with with documents of materials or websites that deal with the history of reading

Comments

[ex_friedrich47]

I don't know much about the history, but a good essay about the aesthetics of reading is Roland Barthes' "Pleasure of the Text." I suppose that we know about this first when writers start commenting upon one another's writing. That may go as far back in Arabic as it does in the romance languages. There is not much of it in Latin or Greek texts, although I would say that Aristotle must have enjoyed reading other philosophers. He certainly relied upon them alot.

[kingtycoon]

Best of luck finding out. Those of us who look into these things deeply enough see a few patterns though. In Mesopotamia there seems to be a progression from simple counters toward more and more sophisticated forms of proto-currency. Because they would mark down how much they were trading and to whom for how much. Eventually these various counters and measures were adopted (apparently - no one really knows for sure) - by kings and priests and reading fell out of fashion for most people as it became a tool of power for the elites - and as it became a specialized skill. In ancient civilizations the Scribe- the person who takes dictation for the illiterate king and who reads his letters is an important individual. In ancient egypt this person is drawn with the black and red ink-pot - the picto-glyph for th scribe is the scribes tools that is. In the west reading really doesn't catch on for the mass of people until Gutenberg starts printing his own bibles, and even then people are skeptical about reading

[votremarionette]

hey. stumbled onto your journal while checking out the desi community-ness. don't know if you're still looking but "the history of reading" by alberto manguel may help.