We were never born to read begins Maryanne Wolf in this pathbreaking exploration of how our brains learnt to read. No specific genes ever dictated readings development. Human beings invented reading only a few thousand years ago. & with this invention we changed the very organization of our brain which in turn expanded the ways we were able to think which altered the intellectual evolution of our species. From the history of the earliest known examples of written language to whether reading online really is making us stupider & why dyslexia can be a gift Proust & the Squid" will ensure you never again take for granted your ability to absorb the written word."