Language at the Speed of Sight : How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It

Although Language at the Speed of Sight is purely an academic, scholarly volume, author Mark Seidenberg’s writing skill is so good that many non-scientific readers will also enjoy the book, even though reading it from cover to cover is a formidable task and well beyond the interest of most readers. The book is obviously the result of considerable research and writing—a tremendous amount of information related to reading and its closely related brain activities, speaking and writing, is presented here in three sections, each with several chapters. The author was careful to break up chapters into shorter, easily readable sub-chapters for readers’ convenience.

Though all of us read all the time (food labels, Facebook posts, novels, street signs, e-mails), we are not aware that reading is an extraordinarily complex act, the brain activities of which have been studied for a long time. This book deals with every aspect of reading: how children learn it, dyslexia and its several forms, why the US population is so far behind among the world’s many nations’ reading abilities, and so on. The book includes occasional sketches, tables, and graphs to illustrate concepts and ends with extensive notes and references, perfect for teachers and academic libraries.