'pbDo towards the end of the 1970s, it could still be thought that the computer would only have an effect on scientific and technical fields. Today we realise that this device and the technologies accompanying it are revolutionising the way our civilisation creates, stores and transmits knowledge. Ultimately, this transformation will influence the most valuable tool that man has invented to build his knowledge and to develop his self-image and the image of the world: the text. And since this only exists depending on reading, changes in the former have repercussions on the latter, as well as those of the latter necessarily lead to the introduction of other forms of textuality. You do not read a hypertext like reading a novel, and web browsing provides a different experience of reading a book or newspaper. Christian Vanderdorpe’s book is devoted to all these upheavals. As part of the intersection of more and more work on the history of reading, hypertext, the order of writing, the ‘end’ of the book and mediology, this book is an exciting reflection on the place and future of writing in our civilisation.’/PB