Research Catalog

Title

Why I read : the serious pleasure of books / Wendy Lesser.

Author

Lesser, Wendy

Publication

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

223 pages; 22 cm

Summary

"An exhilarating volume that will ratchet up the joy for all reading groups "Wendy Lesser's extraordinary alertness, intelligence, and curiosity have made her one of America's most significant cultural critics," writes Stephen Greenblatt. In Why I Read, Lesser draws on a lifetime of pleasure reading and decades of editing one of the most distinguished little magazines in the country, The Threepenny Review, to describe a life lived in and through literature. As Lesser writes in her foreword, "Reading can result in boredom or transcendence, rage or enthusiasm, depression or hilarity, empathy or contempt, depending on who you are and what the book is and how your life is shaping up at the moment you encounter it." Here the reader will discover a definition of literature that is as broad as it is broad-minded. In addition to novels and stories, Lesser explores plays, poems, and essays along with mysteries, science fiction, and memoirs. As she examines these works from such perspectives as "Character and Plot," "Novelty," "Grandeur and Intimacy," and "Authority," Why I Read sparks an overwhelming desire to put aside quotidian tasks in favor of reading. A book in the spirit of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Elizabeth Hardwick's A View of My Own, Why I Read is iconoclastic, conversational, and full of insight. It will delight those who are already avid readers as well as neophytes in search of sheer literary fun"--

Subject

• Lesser, Wendy > Books and reading
• Books and reading
• Literature > History and criticism
• LITERARY CRITICISM / Books & Reading

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Note

• Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Prologue: why I read -- Character and plot -- The space between -- Novelty -- Authority -- Grandeur and intimacy -- Elsewhere -- Inconclusions -- Afterword: the book as physical object.

ISBN

• 9780374289201 (hardback)
• 0374289204 (hardback)
• 9780374709815 (ebook) (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

^^2013033000

OCLC

859252933

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library