A spirited collection of original essays extolling the virtues of the book and the “intoxicating power of the printed word.” Offered as an antidote to the clichÇ that books and reading are threatened by the proliferation of electronic information and entertainment sources, each essay stresses the personal connection of its author to favorite books, writers, genres, or reading practices. Many of the essayists express the pleasures associated with reading, but they also offer insight into how the reading of books helped them to develop both as intellectuals and as fully realized emotional beings. Reading is suggested as a road map to the human interior, which seems to be depreciated as society increasingly fixates upon the manipulation of visual surfaces and information. Of particular interest is “The Pleasures of Reading” by Joseph Epstein, who discovers the sensual nature of his reading practices only after attempting to listen to one of his own novels on an audiocassette. James Shapiro’s “The Sad Demise of the Personal Library” bemoans the conditions that make it more difficult for graduate students and part-time faculty to amass large private book collections like the one that he began in the 1960s with a load of books rescued from the back of a garbage truck. In “The Future of the Academic Book,” Gill Davies explores the connection between books and authorship, pondering how it has been affected by the advent of digital technology. The final verdict is that books will continue to be a nourishing element of the human experience for the foreseeable future. Book enthusiasts will find this collection (edited by Salwak, a professor of English at Citrus College, Calif.) both familiar and reassuring, while younger readers will find much here to inspire them to pursue what could become a lifelong passion for the printed word.
Pub Date: Aug. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-312-21884-2
Page Count: 228
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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