Saturday, 26 May 2018

Francis Spufford - The Child That Books Built


Rating: 5/5

Review:
A delight


I think The Child That Books Built lives up to its reputation; it is readable, evocative, funny in places and extremely insightful about the activity of reading itself and the effects it may have.

This is more than a memoir of childhood reading.  Spufford does tell us about how he learned to read and became an obsessive bookworm, but there is also a lot of erudite and very interesting stuff about developmental psychology, philosophy and so on and the light they may (or sometimes may not) shed on children and reading.  I found the whole thing fascinating and engrossing, and the prose is beautiful. 

I think anyone who enjoys reading and can remember (or wants to be reminded) of the pleasures of being read to and then learning to read with the wonderful worlds which opened up for us would enjoy this book.  Very warmly recommended.

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