A history of reading

"This final volume in the trilogy Language / Writing / Reading traces the complete story of reading from the time when symbol first became sign through to the electronic texts of the present day. After describing ancient forms of reading and the various modes that were necessary to understand different writing systems and scripts, Steven Roger Fischer covers China, Japan, the Americas and elsewhere, and examines the forms and developments of completely divergent dimensions of reading." "Fischer looks to the future where read communication may soon exceed oral communication because of personal computers, mobile phones and the Net. He concludes by looking at 'visual language' and modern theories of how reading is processed in the human brain. Asking how the New Reader can reshape reading's future, he suggests a radical new definition of what reading truly is."--BOOK JACKET.