Ruined By Reading: A Life in Books
by Lynne Sharon Schwartz
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lynne Sharon SchwartzEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-05-30
ISBN: 0807070831
Number of pages: 119
Publisher: Beacon Press
Book Reviews of Ruined By Reading: A Life in Books
Book Review: Not fat enough.
Summary: 5 Stars
Although we are very nice people, and are very modest about it, those of us who spend a lot of time reading consider ourselves superior to people who spend a lot of time watching television or playing computer games. Are we justified?
Over fifty thousand books are published every year in the USA alone. How can we choose which ones to read?
Is there a canon of great books that everyone should read, and that we should make students read before they're allowed to get degrees in engineering or medicine ?
If there is a canon is it overloaded with dead white males?
If we revise the canon are we being too politically correct?
In this slim and elegant essay Lynn Sharon Schwartz offers answers to some of these questions. (The answer to the first one is, of course, yes).
The book begins with personal reminiscences of reading, almost entirely of fiction reading, although the first work mentioned is by a Buddhist monk who is opposed to reading. She does admit to some television watching.
Her most solid argument comes towards the end, when she encounters an American writer who has not heard of Raymond Carver. She makes a good case that anyone in the writing business cannot practice his trade properly without having done some homework.
It is highly readable, and, as I said, slim and elegant. Therein is my major criticism. A fat book full of facts and figures would have done more justice to her topic. Some reports of surveys of public opinion, sales figures,interviews with college curriculum planners and descriptions of publishers marketing strategies, would have added to our interest, even if they spoiled the prose style.
Summary of Ruined By Reading: A Life in Books
A Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of 1996'Without books how could I have become myself?' In this wonderfully written meditation, Lynne Sharon Schwartz offers deeply felt insight into why we read and how what we read shapes our lives. An enchanting celebration of the printed word.
From the author of the acclaimed novels Disturbances in the Field and The Fatigue Artist, this wonderfully written and enchanting meditation explores what the act of reading means--an act that is in danger of being lost today. Lynne Sharon Schwartz of course isn't "ruined" by reading anymore than Tarzan was by apes; it's her life. She was a child prodigy who, beginning at age 3, was summoned to read for guests and has been immersed in the written word ever since, developing into a writer and novelist. In this essay she defends the magic of reading and its place in the development of the mind and ideas. "There is good reason for the addictive cravings of readers. The only thing new under the sun is the sound of another voice," she writes.
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