Alexander Genis considers his cities to be Riga, where he grew up, and New York, where he has lived and worked since 1977 - at the newspaper (“New American”), at Radio Liberty, and most importantly, in his office. Having divided life between the writing (“Dovlatov and the surroundings”) and the dining (“Kolobok”) table, between the Old (“6 fingers”) and the New (“American alphabet”) World, between the East (“Ticket to China”) and the West ( “The Wanderer”), between literature (“Ivan Petrovich died”) and art (“Wrappers”), Ge-nis in his books persistently raises non-fiction literature to the pinnacle where it simply becomes literature, winning a special place for itself. Written with passion and humor, Lessons in Reading provides detailed instructions for enjoying books. All 35 lessons in literary hedonism are visual, engaging, and useful. Having mastered them, everyone will graduate from the school of reading, which, according to Genis’s firm conviction, promises “public daily happiness - for everyone and for free.”