This was an interesting look at the topic, but a bit technical for the casual reader.
Most enjoyed the history of the evolution of the reading brain ( )

3.5. I agree with some of the other reviews of this book that it fails at being either nonfiction for general readers or an academic text, fitting into neither box. But I still appreciated it. As an English teacher, it was helpful to learn about the development of reading and its related neuroscience. I learned some things about dyslexia and how reading shapes our brains. Yes, it was a bit repetitive and vague in some areas but has some good information. ( )

This is a very dense book, but the author manages to make the "science" and "educator" language accessible to the layman. I found this interesting in an academic way, not a lot of practical use to someone who isn't studying the brain, etc. It was interesting to read about the development of a child's brain on the path to reading and gives inspiration if you have a young one in your life to interact verbally and visually with children using words, letters, song and rhyme. ( )

Really good read if you are interested in how our brain came to be able to read and write.

Please follow the link to my blog page to read the review.

https://polymathtobe.blogspot.com/2023/10/book-review-proust-and-squid-by.html ( )

I gotta say, I don't know when the squid was supposed to make an appearance, but it was fleeting if it happened at all.
This is very neuroscience heavy, which I found fascinating, but it was more on how our evolutionary brains picked up reading in the history of our species rather than about the brains of non-readers vs readers. There is a little of that, but we quickly get derailed but dyslexia for the remainder of the book. Again, still fascinating, just not what I was expecting. I think her fearfulness of information being acquired via new technology is hilarious after she showed how Socrates was terrified of people picking up on reading. ( )