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review
rwmg
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Pickpick

The author uses diaries, library records, and other papers as well as elocution guides to reconstruct who was reading what in the 18th century and how. Reading was much more of a shared activity with people reading aloud to each other from newspapers, periodicals, non fiction, joke books, and religious works, and a good reading voice was essential.

rwmg Even with the rise of the novel during this time, reading was much more fragmentary with people reading extracts to elicit emotional responses rather than complete novels such as Behemoths like “Clarissa“ or the more reasonably sized “Tom Jones“.

Fascinating.
5d
27 likes1 comment
review
Hooked_on_books
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Bailedbailed

This book looked great, but after an hour of the audio, I find myself not paying attention to it at all. I‘m not sure if it‘s me, the book, the timing, or the narrator. Maybe I‘ll try it again someday in print.

LeahBergen Too bad! It sounds good. 5d
shanaqui I found this one very variable per-chapter -- some of the figures he chose to talk about were interesting and some... less so. 5d
39 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
rwmg
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blurb
rwmg
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#WhereAreYouMonday

18th century Britain

blurb
Rome753
The Book on the Bookshelf | Henry Petroski
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Theodora resting by the library
#TuxedoCats #catsandbooks #readingcats

AmyG A beauty! 2w
Rome753 @AmyG She's very photogenic! 2w
AnnCrystal 💕😻💝. 2w
dabbe #theatricalthodora!!! 🤩🐾🤩 2w
21 likes4 comments
blurb
Rome753
The Book on the Bookshelf | Henry Petroski
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Irene and Theodora resting in between reading.
#TuxedoCats #catsandbooks #readingcats

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I have two tuxedos 🖤🤍 1mo
TheSpineView ❤️🐾 1mo
dabbe 🖤🐾🐾🖤 1mo
AnnCrystal 💫😸🐾😸💫. 1mo
21 likes5 comments
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IMASLOWREADER
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i love the feeling of checking off multiple books from currently reading to read #readinglife

review
swynn
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Pickpick

(2017) We think of reading as a solitary activity, but in eighteenth century England, reading was also a social one: families read together in the evening, friends read to one other, readers formed clubs to read aloud from novels, histories, and plays. William's study discusses the why, where, who, how, and what of reading in company and it's a fascinating world with very different habits of literary consumption.

Ruthiella A century later but Dickens is so good read out loud and I like to think of families of an evening gathering around to listen to the latest installment being read by a family member. 3mo
MemoirsForMe Fascinating! 3mo
swynn @Ruthiella I agree! As I was reading, I kept thinking about reading to my son at bedtimes, and how my parents read to us when my siblings and I were much younger. It's such a nice way to experience a book, and some books seem to be made for it. Why should it stop when you're old enough to read for yourself, I'd like to know? 3mo
rwmg wishlisted 3mo
30 likes2 stack adds4 comments
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swynn
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Interesting: the 18th century book market saw a demand for “miscellanies,“ collections of choice excerpts from longer works.

Some critics at the time were concerned about the ruin of culture due to the new generation's education through shallow excerpts instead of longer texts. Three hundred years later I share their concern, but maybe it's just history rhyming again.

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Leftcoastzen
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The tagged book was my first read of the year, not the best book on books & reading I‘ve ever read , I did enjoy it . Her specialty is the history OF the book so she went deep on some elements of that I didn‘t get into. Short book & she did have lots of info in the appendix if you wanted to dig deeper, always appreciate that . #SundayFunday

SilversReviews My first book was fabulous. It was THE SECRET HISTORY OF AUDREY JAMES by Heather Marshall. 5mo
Leftcoastzen @SilversReviews that one does sound good ! 5mo
BookmarkTavern Always appreciate a good appendix! Thanks for posting! 5mo
SilversReviews @Leftcoastzen Ohhh…it was so good. I didn‘t want to put it down or for it to end. 5mo
43 likes4 comments