This book presents an informal history of books and reading, beginning with the first clay tablets and continuing on to the latest novels. The history recounted in the book reveals the power books have always had to delight and entertain, and to enlighten, educate, and "raise possibilities." But the story of reading also contains many dark chapters on book burning and censorship--from Plato's suspicion that books can "tell lies" to the concerted efforts by religious fundamentalists and others to ban or bowdlerize the classics of world literature. The book notes other enemies such as the effects of "political correctness," the "dumbing down" of education, and the growing indifference to the printed page in a culture overrun by electronic media. The book concludes with a 572-item book list by "an amateur with no special training"; the list is divided into sections on fiction, classic and contemporary; on contemporary genre fiction and poetry; and on nonfiction--subdivisions on biography, autobiography, and memoir, on American history and world history; and politics, current events, culture, and media. (NKA)