Offering a testimony to his love of reading and the goal of sharing it with others, author Tibor Schatteles presents a collection of twelve essays that study a wide range of works of literature, including works of Philostratos of Lemnos, Sophocles, Cervantes (Don Quixote), Gogol, Chekhov, Balzac (Gobseck), Hermann Broch, Robert Musil, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust and Aristotle's Poetics.

In these essays, he presents the simple exercises of a reader reaching out to communicate with other readers, building on notes he made during first readings and gathered following his retirement from the Canadian Federal Civil Service. Taking a cue from Montaigne's essay on reading books, he asks nothing of his books but "the pleasure of an honest entertainment" and yet he also seeks to share his ideas with others and engage in discussion and analysis.

In The Mirror of Socrates, Schatteles examines the seminal works of literature in scholarly details, sharing his thoughts, ideas, and interpretations of each author's writing and purpose.