This book is organized in three parts, and the first, which focuses on the process of reading, is the best. Birkerts argues that something nearly spiritual happens when we read that doesn't happen with other activities. A self-proclaimed Luddite, Birkerts suggests that reading alters time and leads to duration, where authors have authority and readers reconstruct their souls. After an excellent beginning, the book becomes a bit heavy handed. Overall, I think the author had some prescient things to say.