{"product_id":"0684859076","title":"How to Read and Why","description":"\n\n\u003cp\u003eAmerica's wisest, most prolific reader—and the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e best-selling author of \u003ci\u003eShakespeare: The Invention of the Human\u003c\/i\u003e —draws on his more than 40 years as a college professor and critic to help readers attain a truly profound engagement with great literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\nPublishers Weekly\n\u003cp\u003eThis aesthetic self-help manual is a reliably idiosyncratic guide to what Yale literary critic Bloom calls \"the most healing of pleasures\"-- reading well. In chapters that focus on short stories, poems, novels and plays, Bloom takes readers on a swift but satisfying joyride through the West's most outrageous, original and exuberant texts--classics by Chekhov, Flannery O'Connor, Borges, Dickinson, Proust, Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison, among others. Unconventionally organized by literary genre, his text is passionately anecdotal and observant. By asking great questions--\"Why does Lady Bracknell delight us so much?\"; \"How does one read a short story?\"--Bloom hopes to influence our reading lists and habits. He gives some texts, such as Moby-Dick, almost cursory treatment; others he discusses at length. Fans of his bestselling Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998) will find the lengthy discussion of Hamlet here to be a kind of coda. Overall, this book is a testament to Bloom's view that reading is above all a pleasurably therapeutic event. \"Imaginative literature is otherness, and as such alleviates loneliness,\" he notes, reminding us of what's inexhaustible about writers such as Whitman and Borges and attesting to the satisfaction that literary texts offer our solitary selves. (June) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eCategories:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHealth, Fitness \u0026amp; Dieting\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\u003cli class=\"category-tree\"\u003eGeneral\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\u003cli class=\"category-tree\"\u003eReference\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLiterature \u0026amp; Fiction\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Criticism\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBooks \u0026amp; Reading\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\u003cli class=\"category-tree\"\u003eGeneral\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\u003cli class=\"category-tree\"\u003eCriticism \u0026amp; Theory\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\u003cli class=\"category-tree\"\u003eMovements \u0026amp; Periods\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"category-tree\"\u003e\u003cli class=\"category-tree\"\u003eReference\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eBook details\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Bloom, Harold\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e paperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEdition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Touchtone ed.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Scribner\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/strong\u003e English\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780684859071\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Scribner","offers":[{"title":"Used - Very Good","offer_id":49279061196990,"sku":"0684859076-3","price":6.24,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0640\/9689\/5166\/files\/71HrueGe1rL.jpg?v=1791942506","url":"https:\/\/shop.sustainablebooks.com\/products\/0684859076","provider":"Sustainable Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}