About the Author

Steven Roger Fischer FRS is a former director of the Institute of Polynesian Languages and Literatures, Auckland, New Zealand. He has written many books including A History of Language, A History of Writing, and Island at the End of the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Island, all also published by Reaktion Books.

Reviews

"It's an exciting story, which the author tells clearly and chronologically."--Daily Telegraph "Of the three volumes in Fischer's hugely ambitious and sedulously executed trilogy, the first two dealt with language and writing. This one, however, is the most suggestive and open, dedicated not only to the technicalities of his subject but to the everyday experience of communication. . . . Fischer lets his historical readers speak for themselves, ceaselessly seduced by textual magic."--Independent "Starting from the Bronze Age and ending with modern emails and a possible future of e-books, Fischer's A History of Reading takes in a wonderful diversity of things."--Nature