Poets, novelists and critics committed to creative thinking join together in this collection of essays to say what serious reading really means to them as individuals. The collection is divided into four sections: George Steiner and George Craig on the act of reading in general; Joseph Brodsky, Les Murray, Douglas Oliver and Hester Jones on reading, poetry and vision; John Bayley, Philip Davis and Gabriel Josipovici on reading and teaching in the universities; Raymond Tallis, Michael Irwin, Josie Billington and Doris Lessing on reading and the novel.