is in many respects a cosmopolitan intellectual. He speaks several languages and has lived, in addition to Argentina, in Israel, Italy, England, Canada, Tahiti and, currently, France. In his youth he was one of the readers for Jorge Luis Borges. Manguel is translator, editor and author of work that includes A History of Reading, Reading Pictures, Into the Looking-Glass Wood. Essays on Words and the World and The Book of Imaginary Places.