How Long to Read Bodies and Books

How Long Does it Take to Read Bodies and Books?

It takes the average reader 4 hours and 3 minutes to read Bodies and Books by Gillian Silverman

Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more

Description

In nineteenth-century America, Gillian Silverman contends, reading—and particularly book reading—precipitated intense fantasies of communion. In handling a book, the reader imagined touching and being touched by the people affiliated with that book's narrative world—an author, a character, a fellow reader. This experience often led to a sense of consubstantiality, a fantasy that the reader, the material book, and the imagined other were momentarily merged. Such a fantasy challenges psychological conceptions of discrete subjectivity along with the very notion of corporeal integrity—the idea that we are detached, skin-bound, and autonomously functioning entities. It forces us to envision readers not as liberal subjects, pursuing reading as a means toward privacy, interiority, and individuation, but rather as communal beings inseparable from objects in our psychic and phenomenal world. While theorists have long emphasized the way reading can promote a sense of abstract belonging, Bodies and Books emphasizes the intense somatic bonds that nineteenth-century subjects experienced while reading. Silverman bridges the gap between the cognitive and material effects of reading, arguing that the two worked in tandem, enabling readers to feel deep communion with objects (both human and nonhuman) in the external world. Drawing on the letters and diaries of nineteenth-century readers along with literary works by Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Susan Warner, and others, Silverman explores the book as a technology of intimacy and ponders what nineteenth-century readers might be able to teach us two centuries later.

How long is Bodies and Books?

Bodies and Books by Gillian Silverman is 242 pages long, and a total of 60,984 words.

This makes it 82% the length of the average book. It also has 75% more words than the average book.

How Long Does it Take to Read Bodies and Books Aloud?

The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 5 hours and 33 minutes to read Bodies and Books aloud.

What Reading Level is Bodies and Books?

Bodies and Books is suitable for students ages 12 and up.

Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.

When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.

Where Can I Buy Bodies and Books?

Bodies and Books by Gillian Silverman is sold by several retailers and bookshops. However, Read Time works with Amazon to provide an easier way to purchase books.

To buy Bodies and Books by Gillian Silverman on Amazon click the button below.