Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

If you are interested in what happens in your brain when you read and when you write, this is the book for you: Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.

The author, Maryanne Wolf (see video interview below), specializes in dyslexia, and the book culminates in a discussion of how what we know about reading and writing and the human brain gives us clues to understanding dyslexia. Highly recommended!

Table of Contents:

• How the brain learned to read
• Reading lessons from Proust and the squid
• How the brain adapted itself to read: the first writing systems
• The birth of an alphabet and Socrates' protests
• How the brain learns to read over time
• The beginnings of reading development, or not
• The "natural history" of reading development: connecting the parts of the young reading brain
• The unending story of reading's development
• When the brain can't learn to read
• Dyslexia's puzzle and the brain's design
• Genes, gifts, and dyslexia
• From the reading brain to "what comes next"

And here's an interview with the author, Maryanne Wolf: Embracing Dyslexia. There's also a good article at Mind/Shift: Understanding Dyslexia and the Reading Brain in Kids.