Whenever you pick up the latest novel the book club is tackling, you probably don’t even give a second thought to the marvelous skill you are carrying out. You probably don’t realize the history and complexity behind human beings’ ability to interpret symbols and give them meaning. nueroscientist Maryanne Wolf, explains the intellectual evolution of the human brain in her passionate book Proust and the Squid.

Maryanne Wolf begins by telling her readers that the brain taught itself to read several thousand years ago. However, she contests that the brain that processed the symbols on the Sumerian clay tablets of so long ago and the brain that recognizes the modern alphabet characters of today are not identical.

Early on, Wolf turns her attentions to what she calls the reading brain. The individual reading brain is where Wolf makes use of her expertise in dyslexia. She looks into the reading brain to find when the brain finds it difficult to read.

Maryanne Wolf, also knowledgeable in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, literature, and linguistics, manages to link these concepts to her chronicles of the time of Homer and pre-literacy, the time of Plato and uncertainty, the expert readers of Proust, and the very real problem and gifts of children with dyslexia. Wolf uses the chronology to depict the critical implications involved in the evolution of the human brain. Writing became a scapegoat for the need to memorize things, just as the latest advancements in technology render the need for written word useless. Wolf also adds that this could bring about serious consequences in the future.

Proust and the Squid gives readers a new found appreciation for the skill that allows us to continue to evolve intellectually. The next time you make a grab for the last newspaper in the newsstand on the street corner, thank the human brain and the wonder that the individual reading brain provides.