Reading in the Brain

The New Science of How We Read

By: Stanislas Dehaene

Narrated by: James Gillies

"Brings together the cognitive, the cultural, and the neurological in an elegant, compelling narrative. A revelatory work."--Oliver Sacks, M.D.

The act of reading is so easily taken for granted that we forget what an astounding feat it is. How can a few black marks on white paper evoke an entire universe of meanings? It's even more amazing when we consider that we read using a primate brain that evolved to serve an entirely different purpose. In this riveting investigation, Stanislas Dehaene, author of How We Learn, explores every aspect of this human invention, from its origins to its neural underpinnings. A world authority on the subject, Dehaene reveals the hidden logic of spelling, describes pioneering research on how we process languages, and takes us into a new appreciation of the brain and its wondrous capacity to adapt. According to The Wall Street Journal, Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read "reveals how decades of low-tech experiments and high-tech brain-imaging studies have unwrapped the mystery of reading and revealed its component parts. . . . [Dehaene] never oversimplifies; he takes the time to tell the whole story, and he tells it in a literate way.”

This audiobook is masterfully read by James Gillies, and was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont. Audio engineering by James Gillies.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2009 Stanislas Dehaene (P)2025 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

narrator is so wrong for this subject master that it's comical

Stanislaus Dehaene is one of my favorite neuroscience authors, but this book is not served by the narrator. I keep feeling like this is some kind of fantasy novel, based on the accent and verbal flourishes, and I find it really difficult to absorb any insight or information.