Written in 1986

"Think how often reading has changed the course of history -- Luther's reading of Paul, Marx's reading of Hegel, Mao's reading of Marx. Those points stand out in a deeper, vaster process -- man's unending effort to find meaning in the world around him and within himself. If we could understand how he has read, we could come closer to understanding how he made sense of life; and in that way, the historical way, we might even satisfy some of our own craving for meaning."--
Robert Darnton, in his essay "First Steps Toward a History of Reading" (which appears in his wonderfully ruminative book The Kiss of Lamourette, published in 1990)