A reader in the looking-glass wood -- Room for the shadow -- On being Jewish -- Meanwhile, in another part of the forest -- The further off from England -- Homage to Proteus -- Borges in love -- Borges and the longed-for Jew -- Faking it -- The death of Che Guevara -- The blind bookkeeper -- The perseverance of truth -- Aids and the poet -- The full stop -- In praise of words -- A brief history of the page -- The voice that says "I" -- Final answers -- What song the sirens sang -- Notes towards a definition of the ideal reader -- How Pinocchio learned to read -- Candide in Sanssouci -- The gates of paradise -- Time and the doleful knight -- Saint Augustine's computer -- Reading white for black -- The secret sharer -- Honoring Enoch Soames -- Jonah and the whale -- The legend of the dodos -- In memoriam -- God's spies -- Once again, Troy -- Art and blasphemy -- At the mad hatter's table -- Notes towards a definition of the ideal library -- The library of the wandering Jew -- The library as home -- The end of reading.