Includes index.

The first readers -- Language lost and language found -- The poet and the emperor -- The made-to-order alphabet -- The prayerful pagodas -- The stolen story -- The pillage of Baghdad -- Giving books to the people -- Darkness upon the deep -- The cousins and the code -- Books not to be read -- The dreadul Mr. Shakespeare -- A book at his fingertips -- Freddy the slave boy -- The two-faced treaty -- The evil world of ... comic books? -- Days of the Taliban -- Access denied.