在这本书中，几位当今***的文化创造者——作家、艺术家、科学家、企业家和哲学家——回顾了阅读的乐趣，书籍如何拓宽和深化人类的经验，以及书面文字形成他们自身性格的几种方式。在面向每封信的那一页，**插画家或平面艺术家创作的插图表现了那位艺术家的视觉响应。

这些形形色色的信的写作者有：Jane Goodall, Neil Gaiman, Jerome Bruner, Shonda Rhimes, Ursula K. Le Guin, Yo-Yo Ma, Judy Blume, Lena Dunham, Elizabeth Gilbert和Jacqueline Woodson，以及一位九十八岁高龄的大屠杀幸存者、一位前卫的海洋学家和意大利首位进入太空的女性。参与了这本书的几位插画家、漫画家和平面设计师有Marianne Dubuc, Sean Qualls, Oliver Jeffers, Maira Kalman, Mo Willems, Isabelle Arsenault, Chris Ware, Liniers, Shaun Tan, Tomi Ungerer和Art Spiegelman。


In these pages, some of today's most wonderful culture-makers―writers, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and philosophers―reflect on the joys of reading, how books broaden and deepen human experience, and the ways in which the written word has formed their own character. On the page facing each letter, an illustration by a celebrated illustrator or graphic artist presents that artist's visual response.

Among the diverse contributions are letters from Jane Goodall, Neil Gaiman, Jerome Bruner, Shonda Rhimes, Ursula K. Le Guin, Yo-Yo Ma, Judy Blume, Lena Dunham, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Jacqueline Woodson, as well as a ninety-eight-year-old Holocaust survivor, a pioneering oceanographer, and Italy's first woman in space. Some of the illustrators, cartoonists, and graphic designers involved are Marianne Dubuc, Sean Qualls, Oliver Jeffers, Maira Kalman, Mo Willems, Isabelle Arsenault, Chris Ware, Liniers, Shaun Tan, Tomi Ungerer, and Art Spiegelman.