New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2013. This book critically examines the reading notes and marginalia contained in the books of Samuel Beckett's surviving library in Paris. Previously inaccessible to scholars, this is the first study to assess the importance of the marginalia, inscriptions and other manuscript notes in the 750 volumes of the library. Setting the library into context with other manuscript material such as drafts and notebooks, it examines the way in which Beckett absorbed, 'translated' and transmitted his reading in his own work. This book thus illuminates Beckett's cultural and intellectual world and shows the ways in which his reading often engendered writing.