Ooh, Alberto

[Haw haw...geddit? :-D]

Tonight was the Massey Lecture here in Halifax. Alberto Manguel delivered the first in a series of five lectures on "The City of Words", speaking for about 50 minutes and followed by questions from the audience. The whole thing was taped by CBC Radio for broadcast (and podcast, yay!) on the Ideas programme in November.

It was a great talk, and very nicely delivered. Very deep, though - I don't think I quite got it all, and will probably need to listen again when it's broadcast. Manguel is staggeringly erudite - his source material ranged from Plato and the Greek mythological canon, to a postwar German author I hadn't heard of, and all kinds of things in between. I liked what he had to say about the power wielded by readers, however, and the ways in which many in our society fear that power - so much so that great readers have often been ostracized as a result. (And indeed, are there any bookworms out there who can claim never to have been sniffed at and told to "get real lives"?)

Before heading out this evening, I grabbed my copy of A History of Reading from my bedside table and stuffed into my bag. And I was glad I did, as Manguel did a book signing right after the lecture. He signed my book for me as I gushed a bit about how much I enjoyed his work. I felt like such a little fangirl...hahaha!