Reader, Come Home

In her classic work Proust and the Squid, Maryanne Wolf revealed how the brain learned to read and how reading affects the way we think and feel. In Reader, Come Home, she conveys her concerns and hopes about what happens to the reading brain as we become more reliant—and addicted—to digital mediums, especially given the rapid evolution of AI. Eschewing the simple binary of print versus screen reading, she urges us to understand how each format nurtures or diminishes our quality of thought and the intellectual development of our young—and what is at stake with the loss of "deep reading."

Drawing on literature, philosophy, and neuroscience, Wolf uses down-to-earth examples and warm anecdotes to illuminate difficult ideas that culminate in her thought-provoking proposal for a biliterate reading brain capable of deep reading across mediums. Reader, Come Home presents an extraordinary clarion call to understand the complex impact of technology on the reading brain and what this could mean for our future.