The eminent American literary critic Bloom sets out here an
apologia for the act of reading and a sample selection of short
stories, novels and plays that will teach us to read deeply.
Professor Bloom sees reading as completely personal and isolated, a
way to mould, ground, strengthen and heal the individual through a
lone encounter with the otherness of a great text. His selection
includes both classics (Shakespeare, Dickens, Shelley) and recent
works (Calvino, Borges, Pynchon, Toni Morrison). For each text, he
writes a short commentary and traces lineages within the tradition.
After a lifetime's reading, Bloom deliberately pragmatic approach
means his commentaries come across as literal, anecdotal and
occasionally meandering. His selection of writers - predominantly
male, white and focused largely on the canon - is explained by his
claim that universities have ceased to teach reading in favour of
theory and ideology and now deny the potential reader the wholeness
of an encounter with the tradition of great texts. In a society
under siege to the mass media, Bloom sees his task as rescuing
wisdom from the mass of mere information and stopping the books he
loves and the skills required to read them becoming obsolete. The
only drawback to Bloom's approach is that his view of culture in
decline is not borne out by modern readers and their eclectic
reading habits. This book would prove useful in reading groups or
for anyone who wants a beginners' guide to what is worth reading.
(Kirkus UK)
Harold Bloom, one of the great literary critics and champion of written culture, asserts that we read in order to better understand and fortify our sense of our own individuality. In this essential book he offers a reading list of works, some famous, some less well-known, that allows readers to fully explore dimensions of themselves. Practical, inspirational and learned, How to Read and Why reveals that the close reading and re-reading of great literature can sustain, enrich and strengthen every aspect of our own lives.
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