There are quite a few locations called Reading. There are cities called Reading in nine states: Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Ohio. There’s also a Port Reading in New Jersey.

And there’s a town called Reading in Berkshire in the United Kingdom. It’s the home to the University of Reading, which sounds made up, but is entirely real.

It should be noted (with sincere disappointment) that Reading as a proper noun places are all pronounced RED-ing (like the color) rather than like the activity described in detail in this book.

In The Lost Art of Reading, David Ulin talks about the idea of a litropolis: a “library as a virtual city.” This means that libraries hold entire worlds worth of knowledge. In the same way, reading a book transports us to another place.

Sometimes that place is Reading, Pennsylvania.