Book Description
Helps people read the Bible as a whole; and even when the whole is narrowed to whole books, helps readers to see how each book fits into the grand Story of the Bible.
Customer Reviews:
Good start for serious bible study.......2007-08-08
This is one of the first books recommended by my pastors after I accept Christ in September 2005.
Due to the fact that I want to build a good foundation of proper bible study methods, this book serve as a good foundation for myself. Other than these, I use it in conjunction with Elements of Biblical Exegesis by Michael J. Gorman, Biblical Interpretation: An Integrated Approach, Revised Edition by W. Randolph Tate, and Hermeneutic Spiral by Grant Osborne.
It lay out the basic elements of genre analysis and how each book should be read in its own term. he book can be further complemented by Hermeneutic Spiral where you are further introduced other concepts of biblical exegesis and study.
It is a good investment and you will not regret it.
Excellent Resource.......2007-05-13
I think this book is one of the best resource books I have every had. I use it everyday as I do my daily Bible reading. It helps you understand what to look for as you read the Bible. I recommended this book to others and have purchased 7 more to distribute to friends.
Very good reference book.......2006-11-10
This book is very useful for the average person wanting to dig a little deeper into the Word!
Why How to Read the Bible Book by Book is a must for students of the Bible.......2006-03-15
I believe that How to Read the Bible Book by Book is a must read for students of the Bible because it guides you through the Bible in simple and kind manner. It will make you want to read the Bible in a fresh and new way. I have been studying the Bible formally for over forty years now and I beleive that any book that will help enhance ones study of the Bible is a must read.
I would highly recommend this book for your reading.
Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart have done an excellent job in opening the Bible to the person who needs to know and get a good overview of the Scriptures.
Good Biblical Introduction.......2006-03-05
Dr. Fee's presentation of the biblical material is clear, concise, and up to date. He takes the fruits of biblical scholarship and makes them available to the average lay reader, while not losing sight of what the original authors of the material intended. A strong point of the book is the fact that it situates each of the biblical books and the material they contain within the historical horizon of Israels encounter with God and the World.
For the careful reader Dr Fee's material will help define the central importance of the issue of the 'mission to the Gentiles'--which first presents itself in Genesis narrative, particularly when God initiates the covenant with Abraham. God's choice of Israel is the beach head from which the salvation of the world is launched. This fulfillment of God's purpose is dramatized by Israel's encounter with the nations about her and her response to that encounter right up to, and including the New Testament and continues to the present.
This is high drama, indeed, and this book helps the average person to see the drama and, better, their place in it.
Jim Woods
Book Description
What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface—a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character—and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you.
In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.
Customer Reviews:
Every High School Lit Teacher Should Read this Book!.......2007-08-16
Heard about this book in an AP class for teachers. They were right. It's great. I'd love to require my high school students get a copy-but funding would be a problem.
A book by any other name.......2007-08-06
After reading a certain review here I felt I must post. This book is not for English majors only. This book will open a reader's eyes to what is hidden within leterature. It gave me fresh insight into the background and symbols I had not even thought of before and allowed my reading to be what it was meant to be. Yes, Mr. Foster does enjoy refering to his favorite authors for clarity on a theme or idea he has presented, however, this is not a flaw but a preperation to lay a solid foundation in what the reader will need for their goal. The beauty of this book is in its goal. This book was written so that we can learn with our eyes open and our minds ready to recieve whatever an author might throw at us. I had my "ticket punched" in a lit. class but I got more from this book. Thanks Professor Foster.
Great book for anyone.......2007-05-12
I found this book in a catalog that was sent to me at work. As I researched more about this book, I found out that many teachers across the country have thier students read it. As a high school English teacher and someone who rushed through thier English lit. degree, I was instatnly hooked. During our state testing, I have been reading it and chuckled out loud at it. It is well written and funny. It is hard to believe that you are actually learning as you read.
All literature should be taught this way.......2007-03-25
This book asks of literature, "What's going on here?" and of authors, "How did you do that?" Then it supplies clear, understandable answers that surprise and enlighten and delight.
Entertaining introduction..........2007-01-16
An easy read and a nice introduction (or reminder to those who've been out of college a while) what goes into reading and appreciating great literature. People in college or who remember their college English lit classes vividly will find it a bit too beginner-level. I also thought the prose sometimes was a bit too informal and chatty. Still, I liked it.
Book Description
How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated.
You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them -- from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author's message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science.
Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests whereby you can measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension and speed.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent treatise on literary analysis and criticism.......2007-08-16
On one hand, it feels weird to read a book about how to read a book. So very meta. Yet I came away from this tome with a lot of insight into the difference between widely read and well-read.
There are salient points (and useful advice) on finding themes and reading with an analytical mind. I really wish I would've been able to read this book before I went to university.
Even the advice on reading novels for entertainment, while probably common sense to many, is useful. In addition, there is a (rather intimidating) reading list at the end.
So, overall, a must-read. Only four stars, though, because at time the text can be a little dry and turns into a struggle.
A commendable work.......2007-07-01
I picked up this book in a state of vexed frustration. I had forgotten how to read. At least, if felt like that. It was becoming an increasingly difficult practice for me to finish novels; this I rightly ascribed to one of my most damaging shortcomings: perfectionism. I kept telling myself that I had stopped reading books PROPERLY, or that I was being lazy - in a word, that I wasn't assimilating as much as I should be. My standards, though, were unattainable: I seemed almost to expect that, after one reading, I should be able to recite every word, without fail. It is ludicrous, peurile, yet I couldn't seem to disentangle myself from it. I even considered investing in a punchbag, because there was no one in proximal distance upon whom I could feasibly unleash my anger.
I finished this book today, and already I can assert that it was a successful panacea to my reading woes.
The most important thing that I took from the book - the remedy, if you will - concerns first readings. Rather than attempt to absorb everything, rather than constantly consulting the dictionary - one should just immerse oneself in the novel, ideally in a single sitting. If one keeps stopping, then one is apt to forget, or even lose interest. Then, if one wishes, one can reread the novel with an analytical eye. More than one too many ones in that paragraph.
Adler's insistence that you should read the most challenging books, ones that will stretch your imagination, rather than reading exclusively for mere entertainment - is also admirable. I agree with other reviewers that this book should be compulsory for high-school children (not to mention high school children).
I gave it four stars because most of the book is devoted to the art of reading NON-fiction, and only some of the advice is applicable to imaginative fiction. That is just a minor personal criticism, though.
The name of the book is appalling. Not that this had any bearing on my rating, but the title is deceptively simplistic, and you might want to cover it when in public, lest one be mistaken for an illiterate oaf.
The best of its kind.......2007-06-27
This book changed my life. I think it should be required in school. Or at least it should be required reading for anyone who wants to be an English teacher. I will definitely pass on this information to my future students. I have always been a good reader. In fact, I was so good that no one bothered to find out what exactly I was doing when I read and give me helpful suggestions for improvement. If you think of yourself as an educated, thoughtful person, and still you find that you often finish a book and are unable to articulate much about it six months later, get this book. I read more slowly now but I know what I'm reading. You might also try Susan Wise Bauer's The Well Educated Mind. I would check out both from the library and then select one to buy as a reference. Or buy both if you're a collector like me.
Learn to read, think, analyze, and communicate.......2007-06-16
This book picks up where your reading instruction in school most likely left off. In school you probably learned only the first, elementary, level of reading. In How To Read A Book Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren explain that there are actually three levels of reading beyond the elementary level (inspectional, analytical, and syntopical) and they demonstrate how to develop each of these levels of reading within yourself. In so doing they instill in the reader critical thinking skills that can be applied not only to the written word but to the spoken word as well. And after reading this book you will discover that you are not only a better reader you will find that you are a better communicator. In short, this book will provide you with the tools necessary to live a more fulfilling and productive life.
Book Review.......2007-06-08
The book arrived in a timely manner and I was satisfied with my purchase and the efficient service.
Customer Reviews:
Best starting point for learning Arabic.......2007-06-25
When I first starting learning arabic on my own this was the first book I bought after checking many other titles. If you are going to start out by yourself this is the perfect book to choose and it is cheap. It covers just enough without confusing you too much and introduces the material in an accessible and concise manner. The key to learning how to read and write is practice, practice, and much more practice, and that is why the simplicty of this book is important in my point of view. It gives you the structure to learn and gets out of your way, the rest is up to how dedicated you are.
Excellent.......2007-05-13
Having tried for several months to learn Arabic, through various means, I came across this book, bought it, and suddenly, it all makes sense to me. This is the best source I have found in my quest to understand this increasingly important language. About halfway through the second chapter, everything clicked into place in my mind and "I got it". If you are going to learn Arabic, start here first, and the learning process will be made so much easier.
Excellent book!.......2007-05-04
I have been trying to learn Arabic for the past few years. I've bought many books but none have been as helpful as this one. I wish I knew about it before. I probably would have been speaking, reading and writing Arabic a long time ago.
Excellent introduction to the Arabic alphabet...........2007-04-23
This book is exactly what its name implies, a good introduction to the Arabic alphabet. It does a good job of introducing the letters as they occur in different positions, introduces some basic vocabulary and gives you a good grounding for further study. It accomplishes this goal in less than 100 pages in a very accessible, non-intimidating way.
I say this is a good start because to actually read and write Arabic one would need to know more grammar and some of the nuances of the script which are not covered. However, for an introduction this is very thorough and some of the shortcomings are discussed in the spotlight reviews, so I won't repeat them here.
As a Westerner who has a casual interest in learning Arabic and Arabic script, I found this book to be ideal. A good accompaniment to it is Read and Speak Arabic for Beginners which for about $12.00 gives you some basic vocabulary, a 1 hour CD to help with pronunication and a set of flashcards to review recognizing words. This book and the one I'm reviewing make an excellent, inexpensive and fun introduction to a very difficult language.
Excellent.......2007-03-08
This product was very useful for me to start to learn arabic langauge. I recommend this book and advise for who want to learn arabic language, do not go right to grammar before buy and read this book.
Book Description
Seeds
How does a tiny acorn grow into an enormous oak tree? At one time, the tree in your backyard could fit into your pocket! Look inside to learn the simple steps for turning a packet of seeds into you own garden.
Seeds
How does a tiny acorn grow into an enormous oak tree? At one time, the tree in your backyard could have fit into your pocket! Look inside to learn the simple steps for turning a packet of seeds into your own garden.
Customer Reviews:
Great Science Project for Little Learners.......2007-09-03
If you are looking for a simple "experiment" for the budding scientist in your home, this is an excellent book. As you read this with your young child, he/ she will certainly be inspired to do what the kids in the book are doing; planting a bean seed and watching it grow.
As you read along with the story and follow-up with actually doing the experiment your child becomes part of the story, waiting and watching as his (or her) own seeds develop. Children learn the essential elements of growing seeds. Once you have successfully grown your first bean plants, there is a page at the rear of the book that guides you through additional "experiment" ideas to go even deeper.
This book, because it is on the Stage 1 level, is a bit less informative than the other Let's Read and Find Out Science books that we already have in our growing collection which are primarily Stage 2, but certainly worthwhile in that it guides parent and child through a very simple Science project.
Basic concepts covered in this book in addition to the seed growing are:
1. Counting (stage 1 is geered toward preschool to early kindergarten)
2. Patience (in that you must wait days to see things begin to happen)
3. The ability to follow instructions (the steps to perform the experiments)
Seeds for little kids.......2007-08-27
This book is a lil juvenille... not as information. But it covers the basics... I wished it was a bit more scientific.
My five year old enjoyed this book.......2003-01-10
We enjoy the "Let's - Read - & - Find - Out" series of books. This one is a good addition, explaining seeds on my five year old son's level of understanding . Something that many adult writers of childrens' science books sometimes aren't very good at getting across. It is in my child's library at school.
The books in this series are informative and interesting for their target audiences. The illustrations are well done and add to understanding the process being described. They make it easier to follow for kids.
Life Springing Forth........2002-03-28
This book should have been more appropriately titled HOW TO WATCH A SEED GROW. Instead of discussing the various stages of development and explaining what happens, the book is basically an extended science project explaining how students can watch a seed grow into a plant. The book talks about the different stages, but only discusses what the planted beans should look like in those stages, not really explaining what is happening or why. Nevertheless, the book does outline a good science project for younger children, but isn't much as a book to read to kids.
A Kids First Science Book.......2000-04-13
This is one very good science book. If you would like to do a seed project then this is a good guide to lots of young peoples questions about plants. It has colorful illustrations about what is happening with your project. It is written in detail, but not like a boring high school science textbook that goes on, and on, and on about one thing, giving every detail that there is. So what I'm trying to say is that this is a good book.
Book Description
Are you in business, journalism, law enforcement, or medicine?
Do you face students in a classroom or criminals in a courtroom?
Are you in a relationship or looking for one?
Do you have children?
Then you need the skills to read them like a book!
I Can Read You Like a Book features a system for scanning and interpreting anyone's body language, enabling you to figure out what they are really saying or feeling:
Review: Check out someone quickly, from head to toe.
Evaluate: Know what to look for; notice what's relevant.
Analyze: Spot voluntary versus involuntary movements; factor in gender, context, culture.
Decide: Draw your conclusion.
Step-by-step, you will develop the same skills the best interrogators and detectives use to assess spies, criminals, and witnesses. As part of the process, you will observe some of the most famous people in the world through interrogator Greg Hartley's eyes. You'll discover what emotions these politicians, pundits, and stars are leaking through their body language and facial expressions, and what their answers (or non-answers) are really saying.
I Can Read You Like a Book gives you the fastest, most efficient method to read body language. In any kind of face-to-face competition, first encounters or daily encounters, and even watching the news, you will spot the messages and emotions that people are really sending--whether they know it or not.
As a bonus, you will learn how to use your own face and body to your advantage, whether you're trying to evade a difficult question, handle a sensitive situation, or just playing poker!
Customer Reviews:
Playing Detective for Business or Pleasure .......2007-10-17
For those who enjoy playing detective, analyzing people, or just trying to gather clues for `fitting in' with a culture or sub-culture, this book may be an informative read. Referring to humans as `naked apes', expert interrogator, Gregory Hartley, uses this body language primer to introduce his R.E.A.D. (Review, Evaluate, Analyze, Decide) system for figuring out what is really going down when an `unknown monkey' enters the fray.
Acknowledging that context defines everything, including the signs from body language, the reader is first treated to a lesson in culture as the biggest external influence. That said, Hartley gives the reader a tutorial in what various facial components (the forehead or brow speaks loudest) may be saying - is that a smile of recognition or discomfort? Don't judge yet, just gather data (including body posture and limb movement) and in this `Review `stage, catalogue what you see. Develop a baseline and look for changes that are inconsistent with the words spoken - this is the `Evaluate' stage. Is that change due to excitement or embarrassment? Now it is time to make it personal and `Analyze' the individual so that you can `Decide' what to do with the information you gather.
How simple is that? Not very, was my observation after reading the book, so I looked at Hartley's points to remember:
* Culture is pervasive
* Long-term relationships...create...blinding...filters
* False cognates exist in body language, as well as spoken language
* Baseline what is normal first
* Build your own list of....mood indicators
* Context is everything
Still, not a very clear how-to list for me, and I conclude that it is very difficult, even for an expert, to write about how to read others. Perhaps it is just best to ask what they mean! Dennis DeWilde, author of "The Performance Connection"
Good book.......2007-10-02
Good Book, easy to read and some easy tips for picking up body language signals
very interesting.......2007-08-16
Great book with a lot of information. For anyone who wants to know more about themselves and others!
Good read.......2007-05-26
I really liked this book. It gives a large overview of body language and how to read it. It's a bit dry and contains quite a lot of information. Expect to have to re-read it a few times to understand and be able to apply the information contained within.
Incredibly helpful for me .......2007-05-25
I had an unusual reason to order this book -- my child has a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome. This means that she lacks the skills to interpret body language unless she learns it as a "second language." So I bought it with her in mind. As I read it, I was surprised how extremely helpful it was for ME. I honestly never realized how much I was missing! The skills it teaches will help with relationships of all kinds, business and personal. I truly believe readers will find it valuable and fascinating -- not to mention well written! Thank you, Gregory Hartley and Maryann Karinch!
Book Description
To the list of writers connecting mainstream readers and cutting-edge science—Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Johnson, James Surowiecki—add Read Montague, with this exploration of what exactly determines the choices we make.
With a new perspective on the science of decision-making from the researcher at the center of the computational neuroscience revolution, Why Choose This Book? shows what the latest brain science reveals about the crucial events of everyday experience—the choices we make. From how we decide what we consume to what kind of art we like, and even the romantic, ethical, and financial choices we make, Read Montague guides the reader through a new approach to the mind with an accessible style that is both entertaining and illuminating.
In taking apart the mindÂ's decision-making machinery, Montague first illustrates how our brains are like computers that are slow, small, fuzzy, and cheap—and began with goals like food, water, and sex. Second, he reveals how simple goals like these then turn into ideas like beauty, love, and terror with a life of their own. Finally, he explains how a value system in our heads controls those ideas so we can make good decisions—and how that physical system can break down leading to bad decisions, addictions, mental illness, and even large economic disasters.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, yet vague.......2007-08-07
I found the book to be interesting, presenting many ideas about cognitive function that seem novel and even new. However, they were presented in a vague way with too many details glossed over. I understand the need to "dumb things down" for a wider audience, but it seems as if this went too far. The author is obviously very knowledgeable in this field and he is going out of his way to make the material accessible. This is where the problem lies, the feeling I got when reading this was that I was being treated like a little kid. I still would recommend this book to anyone who asks because it was a quick read and does give a nice overview of what is currently known and what is being worked on.
An Interesting Book.......2007-06-30
I really enjoyed this book, because I am interested in the brain and why we make decisions. Overall it used language I could understand, and made great connections between the anatomy of the brain and the structure of the mind. I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in why we choose what we do and what the brain has to do with it.
Deep information on the working of the brain.......2007-06-27
This indepth study of how the brain works is written so that the average person can understand it. Dr. Montague is an amazing author to be so knowledgeable and able to bring the information down to easily understood language. Everyone should read this.
Thought provoking - but very poorly written.......2007-06-10
Read Montague is probably a very intelligent man, but he is not a very good writer. In an attempt to popularize a very challenging area, he adops a rather breathless style. With testimonials from the likes of Steven Pinker, Antonio Damasio and V.S. Ramachandran, far be it for me to argue with his qualifications in his field - computational neuroscience. My compaint is that he lacks the communication skills of those three noted authors. Montague gets lost in jargon and trying to be cute.
On a more substantive note, I was disappointed with his lack of discussion of the role that emotions play in decision making, and his sketchy descriptions of neural processes.
On the whole, I was disappointed with the book. For anyone interested this area, Marvin Minsky's now book "The Emotion Machine" is better, although both works have very misleading titles.
Mind-blowing.......2007-03-31
I am only part way through this book but I am so excited by it that I've already had to get googling to find out more about the worlds it is beginning to uncover. As someone just starting to study science seriously, it has helped me find what I think might be my field - a convergence of biochemistry, computation, and economics that could lead us to create truly intelligent machines.
Book Description
This user-friendly book with step by step directions gives any reader the tools to teach someone else to read. With easy to follow lesson plans, built in evaluation, and tips on how to reach students in the way they learn best, anyone can teach a child, teen or adult, an individual or group, a beginning or at-risk reader.
The book's emphasis is on the important early basic skills of:
*Memorizing a sight word vocabulary of words used most often, which can't be figured out by using the most commonly used phonics rules.
*Using the most commonly used phonics rules to figure out words used most often, which don't need to be memorized, and obtaining a firm knowledge of how to apply those rules to future unknown words.
*developing basic comprehension skills to assure that the reader understands what the words are saying.
Check lists are provided for determining how the student learns best. Multiple activities and unique yarns, called "Silly Stories," and cartoon illustrations make phonic rules and sight words fun to learn and more memorable. Lists of consonant and vowel sounds, sight and phonetic words, plus rules used to figure out words are included in the Appendices.
Customer Reviews:
The Very Best Book in this Genre!.......2000-01-28
This gem of a book is a must for anyone who is trying to help someone else with their ability to read. It is packed with useful lists, clear diagrams, silly stories, and funny cartoons. In a time of declining reading scores, this work is filling a deep need in an entertaining way.
Reading Basics Made Easy!.......2000-01-27
I am a reading tutor working with teenagers. Most of my pupils have gaps in their reading and phonics skills which have made their educational progress very difficult. This book has helped me target the areas where extra work is needed as well as giving me a good basic set of phonics rules to use in reviewing.
Roger Lakey, former School Board President, Marshalltown, IA.......2000-01-27
We are proud of Lorraine's rapid rise as a teacher of reading skills and as a teacher's teacher. Her method based on phonics and a minimum of memorization makes it practical and fun for anyone to teach others to read and to comprehend what they read. Her book is wonderfully useful for anyone, from home schoolers to professional teachers.
Book Description
What would legendary Boston Celtics coach and 16-time NBA champion Red Auerbach say is the most critical quality for a person to be successful? Would his advice differ from 10-time NCAA championship coach John Wooden's? What would each say to a young person just starting out in pursuit of their dreams? What is the best advice they were ever given?
It took author Christian Klemash more than two years of research, persistence, and original interviews, but now he's ready to pass on the best advice you'll ever get. Only the rare individual has had the opportunity to pick the brain of just one legendary sports coach—let alone thirty-four of the best sports coaches of all time. Klemash gives sports fans a once-in-a-lifetime chance to learn valuable life lessons from the most famous, intelligent, and victorious coaches ever. The legends span the sports world, from gold medal-winning gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi and three-time college football championship coach Tom Osborne to four-time World Series-winning baseball manager Joe Torre and hall-of-fame boxing trainer Angelo Dundee.
These coaches know how to teach top athletes about character and winning, how to manage pressure at crunch time, and how to bring out the best in their players when it matters most. How to Succeed in the Game of Life shares their insights into sports, life, and the most vital keys to sustain success.Featuring Exclusive Interviews with:
Red Auerbach, 16-time NBA World Champion
Bobby Bowden, College Football's All-Time Winningest Coach, 2-time National Champion
Scotty Bowman, 9-time Stanley Cup Champion
Bill Cowher, Super Bowl Champion
Tony Dungy, Super Bowl Champion
Dan Gable, 15-time NCCA Champion
April Heinrichs, Gold Medal Winning Coach of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team
Bela Karolyi, The World’s Greatest Gymnastics Coach
Bill Parcells, 2-time Super Bowl Champion
Emanuel Steward, Boxing Trainer of 30 World Champions
Joe Torre, 4-time World Series Champion
Bill Walsh, 3-time Super Bowl Champion
Lenny Wilkens, NBA’s All-Time Winningest Coach, NBA Champion
John Wooden, 10-time NCAA Champion
And More!
Customer Reviews:
A Great Read.......2007-08-26
Wow!Could not put it down.An extraordinay self help book.Gave it to my kids they loved it.Don't miss this one
What a great read!.......2007-07-25
I took it on vacation with me and I couldn't put it down. A great book for aspiring athletes and coaches as well as your average Joe who works 9-5. The coaches discuss a variety of topics from their childhood to how they motivate their players. Any easy read for all ages.
Game of life.......2007-07-24
I've read through Game of Life and I enjoyed it very much. There are so many things to take from this book, not just into sports, but also some reflections on life. I would recommend this book to everybody.
Coaching advise from athletic coaches.......2007-06-27
A fun read, especially if yoiu're a sports fan. I read it in search of things that would help my own ability as a coach in my company. Much of it is light stuff but the easy read makes it fun nonetheless and there are few golden nuggets laced throughout the book.
Overcome Adversity.......2007-04-12
Anyone looking for inspiration, either for their own life or to share with others, will find a gold mine of quotes here. This book isn't just for sports fans.
Amazon.com
Harold Bloom's urgency in How to Read and Why may have much to do with his age. He brackets his combative, inspiring manual with the news that he is nearing 70 and hasn't time for the mediocre. (One doubts that he ever did.) Nor will he countenance such fashionable notions as the death of the author or abide "the vagaries of our current counter-Puritanism" let alone "ideological cheerleading." Successively exploring the short story, poetry, the novel, and drama, Bloom illuminates both the how and why of his title and points us in all the right directions: toward the Romantics because they "startle us out of our sleep-of-death into a more capacious sense of life"; toward Austen, James, Proust; toward Thomas Mann, Toni Morrison, and Cormac McCarthy; toward Cervantes and Shakespeare (but of course!), Ibsen and Oscar Wilde.
How should we read? Slowly, with love, openness, and with our inner ear cocked. Then we should reread, reread, reread, and do so aloud as often as possible. "As a boy of eight," he tells us, "I would walk about chanting Housman's and William Blake's lyrics to myself, and I still do, less frequently yet with undiminished fervor." And why should we engage in this apparently solitary activity? To increase our wit and imagination, our sense of intimacy--in short, our entire consciousness--and also to heal our pain. "Until you become yourself," Bloom avers, "what benefit can you be to others." So much for reading as an escape from the self!
Still, many of this volume's pleasures may indeed be selfish. The author is at his best when he is thinking aloud and anew, and his material offers him--and therefore us--endless opportunities for discovery. Bloom cherishes poetry because it is "a prophetic mode" and fiction for its wisdom. Intriguingly, he fears more for the fate of the latter: "Novels require more readers than poems do, a statement so odd that it puzzles me, even as I agree with it." We must, he adjures, crusade against its possible extinction and read novels "in the coming years of the third millennium, as they were read in the eighteenth and nineteenth century: for aesthetic pleasure and for spiritual insight."
Bloom is never heavy, since his vision quest contains a healthy love of irony--Jedediah Purdy, take note: "Strip irony away from reading, and it loses at once all discipline and all surprise." And this supreme critic makes us want to equal his reading prowess because he writes as well as he reads; his epigrams are equal to his opinions. He is also a master allusionist and quoter. His section on Hedda Gabler is preceded by three extraordinary statements, two from Ibsen, who insists, "There must be a troll in what I write." Who would not want to proceed? Of course, Bloom can also accomplish his goal by sheer obstinacy. As far as he is concerned, Don Quixote may have been the first novel but it remains to this day the best one. Is he perhaps tweaking us into reading this gigantic masterwork by such bald overstatement? Bloom knows full well that a prophet should stop at nothing to get his belief and love across, and throughout How to Read and Why he is as unstinting as the visionary company he adores. --Kerry Fried
Book Description
Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom begins this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty years, Bloom has transformed college students into lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for literature. Now, at a time when faster and easier electronic media threatens to eclipse the practice of reading, Bloom draws on his experience as critic, teacher, and prolific reader to plumb the great books for their sustaining wisdom.
Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.
Customer Reviews:
Close, but not quite right........2007-03-05
... we all know children in today's grade schools are moving farther away from books and a whole lot closer to My Space for their reading pleasures. Bloom wrote this book to address this and one other concern, that being that universities aren't any healthier for us than My Space when it comes to reading, and reading the right way. Bloom says to read deeply, often, and for yourself without studying the how's and why's using this or that theory of criticism that we're taught in university. I can't agree more after having done a masters degree in English literature. I hated reading after graduating and it took me years to get back into reading for my own true pleasure. For that reason, I like this book. That being said, I think Bloom misses the mark somewhat on what we should read. I've read a lot of the books on his list (Western Canon my bum) and I have to say, many of them are about as interesting, engaging, and exciting as reading as those same My Space pages I mentioned earlier. There is a lot of good literature out there that isn't Shakespeare, Milton, Melville, Emerson, etc. All the good writers aren't dead, Mr Bloom. He's right about the problem but fixing it isn't going to happen by prescribing my fourteen year old a healthy dose of Ibsen, Milton and Emily Dickinson, though everyone could use a taste of Calvino once in a while.
I read somewhere that Bloom said something 'mean' about Stephen King's writing. I don't read King, but at least if my kid is reading that, she's not on the computer all day long. I wonder what Bloom thinks of JK Rowling.
Difficult Book with Some excellent Literary Summaries.......2006-10-11
After reading Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, I was interested in what this author had to say about the how and why of reading the major western literary classics. The author makes the following points; "WHY" to read, 1) to strengthen the self. Reading is a selfish act, to improve oneself as opposed to improving your neighbor or neighborhood "HOW" to read, 2) clear the mind of all the factional, and political ideas of the current time period when the reader is seeking the universality of the spirit. 3) the recovery of the ironic .
The author judges the works by looking for the unique way that certain universal human traits are treated in great works of western literature. The author explains the concept of reading by practicing "overhearing". The concept was lost upon this reader. This reader felt like he
missed some of the foundation terms and principals of the book. From the text one can tell the author has dedicated hours to reading and re-reading the classics. Harold Bloom is a Yale professor with many awards to his credit. I appreciated the quick synopsis of the text or selected poem to bring out themes and thoughts I would have otherwise missed., All in all, the author's concepts are difficult to fully absorb, but his summary of literary works has to spark some interest in some area of the literary classics.
So-So.......2006-09-16
Literary critic should have titled this little guide `What to Read and Why,' seeing as he devotes only a few paragraphs to why reading might be valuable. That said, Bloom is a terrifyingly accomplished reader, but he isn't much of a thinker or a critic in the way Benjamin or Derrida were. Bloom's incessant propensity to judge all literature from the `how is this compared to Shakespeare' lens is foolish and lacking in any insight. At times his criticism seems almost amateurish and rushed. He doesn't seem to be a very good reader of Hemingway, for instance. At the outset of a review of `Hills Like White Elephants,' Bloom writes that "Hemingway's personal mystique-his bravura poses as warrior, big-game hunter, bullfighter, and boxer-is irrelevant to `Hills Like White Elephants' as its male protagonist's insistence that `You know that I love you'" (47). Yet later in Bloom's review, he writes [on `The Snows of Kilimanjaro']: The irony is at Hemingway's expense, insofar as Harry prophesies the Hemingway who, nineteen days shor of his sixty-second birthday, turned a double-barreled shotgun on himself" (49). Bloom seems to have reversed tactics here. Never the less, Bloom is an undeniably great reader of poetry; in this volume he tells you all about his personal favorites: Stevens, Whitman, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, etc. Kind of fun, but far from great criticism.
Bloom: To Know How Is To Know Why.......2006-02-12
For those who purchase Harold Bloom's HOW TO READ AND WHY, they probably expect a companion piece to HOW TO READ A BOOK by Mortimer Adler. With Adler, there is truth in advertising; his focus is indeed on the how. He emphasizes the more traditional skills of main idea, inference, conclusion, and details, all of which must be used to come to terms with the author. Bloom, however, starts where Adler leaves off. Bloom assumes that the reader knows how to meld his mind with that of the author. His focus on the how is really quite simple: the reader should read slowly, reread often and aloud, and allow his own ears to hear and overhear what words of wisdom fall from the lips of literature's most immortal characters. When Hamlet laments the common fate of man in any of his seven soliloquies, Bloom urges the reader to do more than just read; the reader should become Hamlet and speak as the troubled Dane does. It is only when the reader intones along with Hamlet, as opposed to passively listening to Olivier or Brannagh, that this reader becomes Hamlet and insinuates himself into a world of irony that Bloom relentlessly insists forms the philosophical underpinning of Shakespeare's moral vision. The great poems deserve no less. Bloom claims that poetry, like drama, is best appreciated in solitude and when spoken aloud by the reader.
The why of reading is also uncomplicated. The purpose of reading immortal literature, to Bloom, has little to do with ideology or any other attempt to view that work through a critical lens of one 'ism' or another. The why of reading is more personal, more selfish than that. The reader reads to improve himself, to become a better person. The wisdom that infuses any classical piece of writing is useful only insofar as it contributes to the moral growth of the reader. Since most of Bloom's book resembles a digressive tour through a sampling of his favorite works and authors, the novice reader might walk away with the idea that HOW TO READ AND WHY is little more than a folksy rehash of Intro to Lit 101. The truth is more illusive. In his discourses, Bloom does more than simply analyze what makes one character act the way that he does. Bloom humanizes that character by taking that character's words, thoughts, and deeds and making them his own. To become that character, then, in Bloom's vision quest, is, in Adler's terms, to come to terms with that author. The metamorphosis of self is a process of slow accretion, possibly granting that each tick on the clock of rereading brings the reader ever closer to union with the author. The end, of course, to Bloom, to Adler, to anyone who wishes to know and grow is to witness the birth of a new reader, one who is infinitely wiser and happier than his predecessor.
Literacy Guide.......2005-08-19
Bloom's title could not help but appeal to a typical Language Arts teacher in a typical high school. I am facing a school with a history of poor literacy skills in a district with a similiar history. Most literacy programs use a 5th and 6th grade approach with high school students who have scored at that level, and wonder why they are not very successful. Bloom writes for adults, and his approach could well undergird an introduction to remedial readers in high school.
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Books Index
Books Home
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How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth
New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors(3rd Edition)
Old Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors
Listening to the Spirit in the Text
Grasping God's Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible
