A collection of essays in three sections. The first section is Birkerts continually complaining about the rate of change – supposedly society in general, and reading in particular, is going to hell in a hand basket because of the ever increasing rate of technological change and dependence. Whatever. This is also a man that absents himself for the need to participate in important political action because he reads, thinks and writes, and therefore makes great changes in and on society. Again, whatever. The next two sections are not that much better.

There are a few nice essays in here – ‘States of Reading’ was a good reflection of what goes on when a reader is absorbed into the world of a novel – but in general most of the writing in here was of the prissy, over-laboured style of literary review/criticism that drives so many people away from reading essays written about literature. Not much point even picking this one up. ( )