Throughout his life, Borges often stated that he considered himself more a reader than a writer, and that he was more grateful for the books he had read than for those he had written.
He defined the book as an extension of our memory and imagination; reading thus became a conscious exercise of these two faculties. Borges read in various ways. First, he read to discover what lay beyond his own experience, especially during his childhood in his father’s library, which he considered the most important event of his life.

Later, he read to extract, from texts seemingly unrelated to one another, the material for his own writings. Finally, when he became blind, he began to read through the eyes of others. It is also important to consider other aspects of his relationship with reading: the text perceived through the reader’s prejudices and superstitions; the text transformed—enriched or altered—by translation; reading linked to the physical object of the book; or even the editor as a reader.

In this lecture, Alberto Manguel will discuss the biographical dimension of the author, weaving connections to his literary work.

Biography
Alberto Manguel is an Argentine-Canadian writer, essayist, and literary critic. During his youth in Buenos Aires, he read to Jorge Luis Borges, who was already blind—an experience that profoundly shaped his own work. Author of numerous essays translated worldwide, including A History of Reading and Reader of Borges, he is recognized as one of the leading contemporary thinkers on reading, libraries, and literary imagination. Former director of the National Library of Argentina, he now lives immersed in languages, books, and cultural traditions.

This event is organized by the association Los conjuradoswww.losconjurados.ch as part of its BORGES 2026 project, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Argentine writer’s death in Geneva.

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