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.

Notes on Contributors - Introduction - READING - 'Critic'/'Reader'; G.Steiner - So Little Do We Know of What Goes On When We Read; G.Craig - READING, POETRY AND VISION - Two Essays at Human Assemblies; J.Brodsky - Trances; L.Murray - Poetry's Subject; D.Oliver - Triumphant Obstination: Reading Adrienne Rich and Elizabeth Bowen; H.Jones - READING AND TEACHING - Reading about Things: Or Hannibal Goes for the Mail; J.Bayley - Micro and Macro; P.Davis - Thirty-three Variations on a Theme of Graham Greene; G.Josipovici - THE NOVEL - Theorrhoea Contra Realism; R.Tallis - Readings of Realism; M.Irwin - Watching a Writer Write: Manuscript Revisions in Mrs Gaskell's Wives and Daughters and Why They Matter; J.Billington - Green Glass Beads; D.Lessing