The contribution, enriched by an interview with the author, examines and discusses some of the characteristics of the new Italian edition of Una storia della lettura by Alberto Manguel, published by Vita e Pensiero in 2023. Starting from the description of the paratextual elements, the article describes the different parts of the book, in which the general and objective history of reading and the intimate and subjective history of the author-reader intertwine and intersect, in a dense and profound interpenetration, which ends up opening onto what moves beyond the boundaries of language, written and read. The contribution concludes by highlighting three stories, among the many that the book tells, to which three possible positions correspond, on the shelves of the ideal Library - Universe and in those of real libraries, in which the book can be metaphorically placed, waiting that a new reading experience awakens its content.