How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface—a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character—and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you. In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and… Product details and pricing info |
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62 Customer Reviews Posted
- great book for students
- This is a lively, friendly, entertaining book that is great for students. It discusses how to read, to to really read literature. But as a practiced reader I found that it didn't teach me much, though it would be great for a freshman or sophmore.
- 2008-05-10, 3 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Good Book for Students
- I wish that I'd read this book before I began college too many years ago. How to Read Literature Like a Professor summarizes in accessible style and tone many of the points that it took years to learn on my own. It would be a good gift for any junior or senior in high school who's headed for college. It will ease the transition from reading at the literal level, to learn what happens in the plot, to reading at deeper levels, to learn what the author is saying "between the lines." Inclusion of references to film, television, theatre, and music strengthens How to Read Literature Like a Professor by refering to genres with which students may be more familiar. (The current universal reference for high school students is the film trilogy of The Lord of the Rings.) The literary references form a wonderful reading list. The humor helps to demonstrate that approaching literature does not have to be a solemn occasion.
- 2008-05-01, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- How to Read Literature
- Took a while to arrive, but was in good condition. However, did not find it useful for my use.
- 2008-04-20, 1 of 6 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Too bad I'm so old
- I wish I had read this 45 years ago, when I was studying fiction in college.
- 2008-04-13, 0 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A gentle playful invitation.
- This is a pretty decent introduction to literature. As he states in the book, it's watered down Northrop Frye, which he recommends you read. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. It's a primer, not a real study, and I think his flip tone is an attempt to ease non-readers into the mix. This is not a book for people who are already reading or have taken any of the basic lit classes. THIS IS NOT A CRITICISM. I believe this is the book he intended to write, and I think he did a decent job.
My only complaint after reading it once is his troubling mistake when recommending How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry. He says it is by Robert Pinsky, former poet laureate. It isn't. It's by Edward Hirsch.
A minor thing, but I'm shocked it wasn't corrected for the later editions.
I recommend: The Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.) - 2007-12-19, 5 of 6 people found this review helpful, Rated:
