Download or read book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction written by Alan Jacobs and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-26 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, cultural commentators have sounded the alarm about the dire state of reading in America. Americans are not reading enough, they say, or reading the right books, in the right way. In this book, Alan Jacobs argues that, contrary to the doomsayers, reading is alive and well in America. There are millions of devoted readers supporting hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Oprah's Book Club is hugely influential, and a recent NEA survey reveals an actual uptick in the reading of literary fiction. Jacobs's interactions with his students and the readers of his own books, however, suggest that many readers lack confidence; they wonder whether they are reading well, with proper focus and attentiveness, with due discretion and discernment. Many have absorbed the puritanical message that reading is, first and foremost, good for you--the intellectual equivalent of eating your Brussels sprouts. For such people, indeed for all readers, Jacobs offers some simple, powerful, and much needed advice: read at whim, read what gives you delight, and do so without shame, whether it be Stephen King or the King James Version of the Bible. In contrast to the more methodical approach of Mortimer Adler's classic How to Read a Book (1940), Jacobs offers an insightful, accessible, and playfully irreverent guide for aspiring readers. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of approaching literary fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, and the book explores everything from the invention of silent reading, reading responsively, rereading, and reading on electronic devices. Invitingly written, with equal measures of wit and erudition, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction will appeal to all readers, whether they be novices looking for direction or old hands seeking to recapture the pleasures of reading they first experienced as children.
Download or read book The Pleasures of Reading written by Catherine Sheldrick Ross and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-06-27 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on years of ground-breaking research, this book supplies a look at the unique relationship between each text and the individual reader that results in a satisfying, pleasurable, and even life-changing reading experience. Following up on her critically acclaimed Reading Matters: What the Research Reveals about Reading, Libraries, and Community, Catherine Sheldrick Ross takes a new look at pleasure reading through 30 thought-provoking essays based on themes arranged from A to Z. In short lively chapters, she discusses topics ranging from "Alexia," "Bad Reading," and "Changing Lives" to "Romance Fiction," "Self-help," "Titles," "Vampires," and "Year of Reading." Drawing on her own research as well as other published sources, Ross comments on the significance of each theme, provides examples of the phenomenon, and develops the topic chronologically, through further examples, or through reversals. The essays are unified by an underlying theory of reading that views readers as sense-makers, actively engaged in reading themselves into the text and reading the texts back into their own lives. It gives educators and librarians insights into their roles with readers and offers a message about the importance of pleasure reading. A short list of resources for further reading is supplied with each topic.
Download or read book The Pleasures of Reading written by Robert Alter and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1996 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A distinguished critic rescues literature from the ivory tower and reestablishes reading as a personal source of complex pleasure and insight.
Download or read book The Pleasure of Reading written by Antonia Fraser and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this delightful collection, forty acclaimed writers explain what first made them interested in literature, what inspired them to read, and what makes them continue to do so. First published in 1992 in hardback only, original contributors include Margaret Atwood, J. G. Ballard, Melvyn Bragg, A. S. Byatt, Catherine Cookson, Carol Ann Duffy, Germaine Greer, Alan Hollinghurst, Doris Lessing, Candia McWilliam, Edna O'Brien, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Sue Townsend, and Jeanette Winterson. The new edition will include essays from ten new writers.
Download or read book The Pleasure of Reading written by Eric Macfarlane and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2019-07-23 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pleasure of Reading reflects on the joys of owning and reading books. It looks at the situations that lead people to become keen readers and the ways in which parents and teachers can encourage children’s love of stories. It is critical of traditional methods of studying literature that deter many children from regarding reading as a pleasurable activity. The book also looks at the interests and passions that motivate novelists and the wide range of subjects on which they choose to write, the kind of stories they tell, the themes that they explore and the skill with which they handle their plots, characters and settings. Particular attention is given to the novelist’s role as a protester against injustice, persecution and the abuse of power.
Download or read book Reading Unbound written by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm and published by Teaching Resources. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the reading habits of teens and how educators can learn how to teach reading from the choices that young readers make for themselves.
Download or read book Making Your Own Days written by Kenneth Koch and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1999-04-08 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the winner of the Bollingen Prize in poetry and author of the classic bestseller "Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?" comes a unique, highly entertaining book for anyone who wants to be a better reader and writer of poetry.
Download or read book Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes written by Jonathan Auxier and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Gardener, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery. One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher—a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick—a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat—and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny. Be sure to read the companion book, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard. Praise for Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes “Auxier has a juggler’s dexterity with prose that makes this fantastical tale quicken the senses.” –Kirkus Reviews
Download or read book Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures written by Arielle Zibrak and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures reclaims the femme fictions dismissed as "trash" to celebrate the surprisingly cathartic pleasures of domination, privilege, and the material trappings of patriarchal culture"--
Download or read book The Knowledge Gap written by Natalie Wexler and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.
Download or read book Sensitive Reading written by Yigal Bronner and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction / Yigal Bronner and Charles Hallisey -- Shriharsha's Sanskrit Life of Naishadha : translator's note and text -- Points and progression : how to read Shriharsha's Life of Naishadha / Gary Tubb -- "If I'm reading you right..." : reading bodies, minds and poetry in the Life of Naishadha / Thibaut d'Hubert -- Ativirarama Pandyan's Tamil Life of Naidatha : translator's note and text -- Hearing and madness : reading Ativirarama Pandyan's Life of Naidatha / N. Govindarajan -- How we read / Sheldon Pollock -- Malamangala Kavi's Malalyalam Naishadha in our language : translator's note and text -- I talk to the wind : Malamangala Kavi's Naishadha in our language / Sivan Goren-Arzony -- In the garden of love : an essay on Naishadha in our language / Meir Shahar -- "Khwaja the Dog-Worshiper" from The story of the four dervishes : translator's note and text -- How not to see a dog-worshiper / Jamal Jones -- A historian reads a fable / Muzaffar Alam -- "Touch" by Abburi Chayadevi : translator's note and text -- How to touch "Touch" / Gautham Reddy -- "Don't stand so close to me!" : remarks on Chayadevi's "Touch" / Sanjay Subrahmanyam -- "A street pump in Anantapuram" and five other poems by Ismail : translator's note and text -- Speaking of landscapes, revolutionaries, and donkeys : Ismail's words and images / Afsar Mohammad -- Between sky and road : the wandering scholar, modernism and the poetry of Ismail / Gabriel Levin -- The music contest from Tiruttakkatevar's Tamil Chivakan's gem : translator's note and text -- Love in defeat / Talia Arlav -- Sweetness that melts the heart / Kesavan Veluthat -- What's gained in translation / Sonam Kachru -- Two songs by Muttuswami Dikshitar performed by T.M. Krishna and Eileen Shulman : translator's note, texts, and recordings -- Beyond passion, beyond even the Raga / T.M. Krishna -- Reading as an act of trust / Donald R. Davis -- Desire and passion ride to war (unknown artist) : selector's note -- Pillars of love : a dialogic reading of temple sculpture / Anna Lise Seastrand -- Side observation of a small portion of Varadaraja-svami Temple / Tawfiq Da'adli -- Ravana visits Sita at night in the Ashoka Grove, from Kamban's Tamil Ramayana : translator's note and text -- Kamban's Tamil as a kind of Sanskrit / Whitney Cox -- Can darkness stand before light? : encountering an episode from a medieval Tamil masterpiece / Yehoshua Granat -- When a mountain rapes a river, from Bhattumurti's Telugu Vasu's Life : translator's note and text -- Irreconcilable differences and (un)conventional love in Bhattumurti's Vasu's Life / Ilanit Loewy Schacham -- Desire, perception, and the poetry of desire : a reading of Vasu's life / Deven Patel -- "The ten on the wild boar" : translator's note and text -- Reading "Ten on the wild boar" / Archana Venkatesan -- Three poems about love's inner modes : translator's note and text -- Between us : reading Tamil Akam poems / Jennifer Clare -- The unbaked clay pot in pouring rain : reading Sangam poetry today / R. Cheran -- Nammalvar's Tamil A hundred measures of time : translator's note and text -- "You came so that we may live" / Anand Venkatkrishnan -- Taking the measure of A hundred measures / Andrew Ollett -- A Persian Ghazal by Hafez and an Urdu Ghazal by Ghaleb : translator's note and text -- How a Ghazal thinks / Rajeev Kinra -- The Ghazal of What's more than real / Peter Cole -- Afterword / Wendy Doniger.
Download or read book Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs written by Chuck Klosterman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-06-22 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback after six hardback printings, the damn funny...wild collection of bracingly intelligent essays about topics that aren't quite as intelligent as Chuck Klosterman'(Esquire). Following the success of Fargo Rock City, Klosterman, a senior writer at Spin magazine, is back with a hilarious and savvy manifesto for a youth gone wild on pop culture and media, taking on everything from Guns'n'Roses tribute bands to Christian fundamentalism to internet porn. 'Maddeningly smart and funny' - Washington Post'
Download or read book Days of Reading written by Marcel Proust and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2008-08-07 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In these inspiring essays about why we read, Proust explores all the pleasures and trials that we take from books, as well as explaining the beauty of Ruskin and his work, and the joys of losing yourself in literature as a child. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
Download or read book Building Communities of Engaged Readers written by Teresa Cremin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-20 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reading for pleasure urgently requires a higher profile to raise attainment and increase children’s engagement as self-motivated and socially interactive readers. Building Communities of Engaged Readers highlights the concept of ‘Reading Teachers’ who are not only knowledgeable about texts for children, but are aware of their own reading identities and prepared to share their enthusiasm and understanding of what being a reader means. Sharing the processes of reading with young readers is an innovative approach to developing new generations of readers. Examining the interplay between the ‘will and the skill’ to read, the book distinctively details a reading for pleasure pedagogy and demonstrates that reader engagement is strongly influenced by relationships between children, teachers, families and communities. Importantly it provides compelling evidence that reciprocal reading communities in school encompass: a shared concept of what it means to be a reader in the 21st century; considerable teacher and child knowledge of children’s literature and other texts; pedagogic practices which acknowledge and develop diverse reader identities; spontaneous ‘inside-text talk’ on the part of all members; a shift in the focus of control and new social spaces that encourage choice and children’s rights as readers. Written by experts in the literacy field and illustrated throughout with examples from the project schools, it is essential reading for all those concerned with improving young people’s enjoyment of and attainment in reading.
Download or read book Simple Pleasures written by and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-05-31 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the little things that make life worth living? A walk in the countryside, perhaps; a log fire; a letter from a friend. In Simple Pleasures, some of the UK's best-loved writers and public figures ponder this conundrum and come up with their own answers, sharing their thoughts on, among other things, the joys of picking up litter, whittling sticks, reading aloud, and devouring a good cheese sandwich. With contributions from A. C. Grayling, Robert McCrum, Prue Leith, Sebastian Faulks and Ann Widdecombe, to name just a few, Simple Pleasures is perfect reading for anyone who appreciates - or aspires to - the finer, simpler things in life.
Download or read book Home Land written by Rebecca Mead and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2023-07-11 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A moving reflection on the complicated nature of home and homeland, and the heartache and adventure of leaving an adopted country in order to return to your native land—this is a “winsome memoir of departure and reversal . . . about the way a series of unknowns accrue into a life” (Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror). When the New Yorker writer Rebecca Mead relocated to her birth city, London, with her family in the summer of 2018, she was both fleeing the political situation in America and seeking to expose her son to a wider world. With a keen sense of what she’d given up as she left New York, her home of thirty years, she tried to knit herself into the fabric of a changed London. The move raised poignant questions about place: What does it mean to leave the place you have adopted as home and country? And what is the value and cost of uprooting yourself? In a deft mix of memoir and reportage, drawing on literature and art, recent and ancient history, and the experience of encounters with individuals, environments, and landscapes in New York City and in England, Mead artfully explores themes of identity, nationality, and inheritance. She recounts her time in the coastal town of Weymouth, where she grew up; her dizzying first years in New York where she broke into journalism; the rich process of establishing a new home for her dual-national son in London. Along the way, she gradually reckons with the complex legacy of her parents. Home/Land is a stirring inquiry into how to be present where we are, while never forgetting where we have been.
Download or read book The Pleasures of Children s Literature written by Perry Nodelman and published by Pearson College Division. This book was released on 2003 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers an overview of children's literature in the context of professional discussion of children's literature and reading. Focusing on controversial issues and designed to provoke thought and debate, this text examines literary response to and analysis of the field of literary texts written by adults for children.
