Why I Read - Hardcover

Wendy Lesser

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374289204 ISBN 13: 9780374289201

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014

Synopsis

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 favour 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.

About this title

About the Author

Wendy Lesser is the founder and editor of The Threepenny Review, which Adam Zagajewski has called one of the most original literary magazines not only in the U.S. but also on the entire planet. She is the author of eight previous books of nonfiction and one novel. Her most recent book is the prizewinning Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen String Quartets. She has written for The New York Times Book Review, the London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, and other publications. She divides her time between Berkeley, California, and New York City.

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374289204
• ISBN 13: 9780374289201
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240