There is not one single correct way of reading. In Reader’s Block: A History of Reading Differences, Matthew Rubery describes reading as a spectrum covering “an array of disparate activities” (p. 201). This scholarly book, rather than giving a new definition of reading, gathers examples of diverse ways of reading. The title phrase of “reader’s block” refers not only to neurodivergent reading “but also to people’s reluctance to recognize alternative ways of doing it as forms of reading” (p. 203). Rubery argues for “an inclusive understanding of reading that would accommodate the full panoply of reading or reading-like behaviors that historically have been denied recognition—you might even say blocked” (p. 204). Reader’s block can take forms such as “struggling to learn to read, struggling to stop reading, losing the ability to read, favoring unorthodox styles of reading, figuring out workarounds to resume reading, and adjusting to life after reading” (p. 25). Rubery established the term reader’s block in his 2019 article in Literature and Medicine about alexia, or acquired illiteracy.
This monograph’s distinctive contribution is providing an account of neurodivergent readings in order to advance the discourse about what reading is. Rubery hopes this book will make a positive impact “by changing perceptions about what counts as ‘normal’ reading” (p. 19). Drawing on a range of sources to defamiliarize the act of reading, Rubery states that “there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ reader” (p. 206). Evidence sources are in the English language and come from genres such as scientific and medical cases, memoir, testimonial, and fiction. Rubery raises awareness about “methods of interacting with print that have been dismissed as pathological, aberrant, or ‘nonreading’” (p. 201).
The neurodiversity movement influences this analysis by encompassing different types of cognition. Rubery uses the terminology of “‘reading differences’ instead of ‘reading disabilities’ to move away from a framework that emphasizes deficits and difficulties over potential strengths” (p. 2). Offering a powerful corrective to neurotypical hegemony, Rubery “presumes there to be no conflict between reading in an unorthodox manner (or not at all) and leading a dignified, meaningful life” (p. 22). But he notes that he differs from disability studies scholars because one of his core goals is “to document the consequences of reading’s loss” (p. 24). He will not “reduce literacy to just another skill” because “reading matters at a profound level” (p. 25). A professor of literature, Rubery is informed by methods of literary criticism and offers close readings of texts. His terminology of the “unideal reader” is an example of wordplay on the concept of the “ideal reader” from reader-response criticism and other literary theories (p. 102). He denotes “unideal” reading as the situation where differences “make encounters with books uncomfortable or even intolerable” (p. 102).
The six central chapters of Reader’s Block, framed by an introduction and epilogue, cover six different neurological conditions that affect people’s encounters with the printed word: dyslexia, hyperlexia, alexia, synesthesia, hallucinations, and dementia. While the chapters are distinct, these neurological conditions affecting literacy inevitably overlap.
The chapter on dyslexia describes the laborious, exhausting work that dyslexic readers do when decoding texts. Dyslexia memoirs reveal the “perceptual distortions that disrupt the word processing stage preceding interpretation,” such as “misrecognized letters, moving words, mixed-up sentences, and other perceptual distortions” (p. 27). Rubery covers how tinted lenses or colored filters help some dyslexic readers, although the efficacy of these tools has not been confirmed scientifically. Like the book as a whole, this chapter powerfully educates audiences who find reading automatic, or as a procedure that can be taken for granted, to understand how others read and how reading differences can even create different versions of a text.
The alexia chapter covers forms of “acquired illiteracy” such as that experienced by survivors of brain injury. Such people struggle to adapt their lives to a condition of “postliteracy” (p. 101). When reading is part of daily life and personal identity, people may be unable to accept the loss of reading. Forms of alternative literacy exist, with some people regaining “a sort of literacy limbo, a partial ability to read that is provisional and time-consuming” (p. 118). Rubery asserts that all techniques should be accepted because no one definition of reading applies.
The chapter on dementia opens with the example of the late author Terry Pratchett, who had early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. People with dementia have a “flickering attention span, dwindling short-term memory, and difficulties following a conversation” (p. 186). Sufferers of neurodegenerative diseases question their identities, but books can remain part of people’s lives even when they no longer possess the conventional ability to read and remember them. Readers with amnesia, dementia, or other memory disorders create methods to continue accessing books. Compensatory strategies can involve reading the same newspaper text repeatedly, leafing through magazines, or “jotting down in the margins compressed plot summaries every few pages” (p. 184).
Dementia memoirs “propose alternative ways of conceptualizing identity that are not defined by memory” (p. 195). Rubery examines autobiographical texts by writers such as Thomas DeBaggio, Kate Swaffer, Christine Bryden, Cary Smith Henderson, and Richard Taylor, as well as examples from fiction such as Lisa Genova’s novel Still Alice (2007), later adapted as a film (2014). In the area of books targeted for the audience of memory-challenged adults, Dovetale Press publishes new versions substantially modifying classic fiction such as Sherlock Holmes stories. Dovetale’s adaptations are not concerned with preserving the original versions but “finding ways for people to continue engaging with books” by reducing the cognitive load of comprehension and making narratives accessible (p. 190).
Matthew Rubery acknowledges that readers will access Reader’s Block: A History of Reading Differences in different ways. He welcomes whatever reading methods are used. This scholarly book is available in print, Kindle, and audiobook formats, since listening is a type of reading. This book does not provide pedagogical guidelines for literacy educators, which would be a different project from Rubery’s aim to provide insights into the practices of atypical readers. Nevertheless, much can be learned from the examples, memoirs, and strategies people have used to unblock reading. Readers with literacy differences in their families or workplaces will gain insights from Rubery’s synthesis of accounts about atypical literacy. All engagement with books is reading, and all readers can learn from people who read “in unconventional ways” (p. 202).
