Book Description
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 gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.
Customer Reviews:
Every High School Lit Teacher Should Read this Book!.......2007-08-16
Heard about this book in an AP class for teachers. They were right. It's great. I'd love to require my high school students get a copy-but funding would be a problem.
A book by any other name.......2007-08-06
After reading a certain review here I felt I must post. This book is not for English majors only. This book will open a reader's eyes to what is hidden within leterature. It gave me fresh insight into the background and symbols I had not even thought of before and allowed my reading to be what it was meant to be. Yes, Mr. Foster does enjoy refering to his favorite authors for clarity on a theme or idea he has presented, however, this is not a flaw but a preperation to lay a solid foundation in what the reader will need for their goal. The beauty of this book is in its goal. This book was written so that we can learn with our eyes open and our minds ready to recieve whatever an author might throw at us. I had my "ticket punched" in a lit. class but I got more from this book. Thanks Professor Foster.
Great book for anyone.......2007-05-12
I found this book in a catalog that was sent to me at work. As I researched more about this book, I found out that many teachers across the country have thier students read it. As a high school English teacher and someone who rushed through thier English lit. degree, I was instatnly hooked. During our state testing, I have been reading it and chuckled out loud at it. It is well written and funny. It is hard to believe that you are actually learning as you read.
All literature should be taught this way.......2007-03-25
This book asks of literature, "What's going on here?" and of authors, "How did you do that?" Then it supplies clear, understandable answers that surprise and enlighten and delight.
Entertaining introduction..........2007-01-16
An easy read and a nice introduction (or reminder to those who've been out of college a while) what goes into reading and appreciating great literature. People in college or who remember their college English lit classes vividly will find it a bit too beginner-level. I also thought the prose sometimes was a bit too informal and chatty. Still, I liked it.
Amazon.com
You need no previous experience reading hieroglyphs to benefit from this book. This is a hieroglyphs guide for the layperson, tourist, or museum enthusiast who'd like to have more of a clue when it comes to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs. Focusing on the funerary symbols one would be likely to see in Egypt or at a museum, and illustrated with hieroglyphs that are on display in the British Museum (drawn by Richard Parkinson, curator in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum), How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs makes possible a deeper appreciation not just of museum displays but of the Egyptian culture that used this writing system.
Both experts in Egyptology (Collier teaches Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and Manley teaches the subject at the University of Glasgow), they explain how most hieroglyphs are used to convey the sound of the ancient Egyptian language, then go on to teach, in easily digestible segments, the basic phonograms (sound-signs) used in inscriptions a traveler or museum-goer would be most likely to encounter. Each chapter teaches a new portion of hieroglyphic script and a new aspect of the Middle Egyptian grammar, with a section to practice the new reading skills and exercises to solidify the lessons taught. It provides a wonderful opportunity to sit at home and learn about the pharaonic administration, ancient Egyptian family life, and the Egyptian way of death, while building a firm understanding of the most common features of hieroglyphs. --Stephanie Gold
Book Description
Hieroglyphs are pictures used as signs in writing. When standing before an ancient tablet in a museum or visiting an Egyptian monument, we marvel at this unique writing and puzzle over its meaning. Now, with the help of Egyptologists Mark Collier and Bill Manley, museum-goers, tourists, and armchair travelers alike can gain a basic knowledge of the language and culture of ancient Egypt.
Collier and Manley's novel approach is informed by years of experience teaching Egyptian hieroglyphs to non-specialists. Using attractive drawings of actual inscriptions displayed in the British Museum, they concentrate on the kind of hieroglyphs readers might encounter in other collections, especially funerary writings and tomb scenes. Each chapter introduces a new aspect of hieroglyphic script or Middle Egyptian grammar and encourages acquisition of reading skills with practical exercises.
The texts offer insights into the daily experiences of their ancient authors and touch on topics ranging from pharaonic administration to family life to the Egyptian way of death. With this book as a guide, one can enjoy a whole new experience in understanding Egyptian art and artifacts around the world.
Customer Reviews:
Incredibly well thought out and put together.......2007-09-03
I love this book! It absolutely is for the "true beginner" and has plenty of exercises, well thought out chapters and a ton of information in the many appendixes (including a small dictionary, hieroglyphic sign lists and small descriptions). I'd recommend this book to ANYONE who is looking to improve on their Hieroglyphic knowledge or who would like to learn even a little bit about them!
Exactly what I wanted........2007-08-15
I do not know a lot about hieroglyphics beyond touring Egypt 3 times, which is why I purchased this book. But I can tell you that it is very detailed and easy to read. I'm very happy with this purchase.
Perfect Introduction for a Beginner Like Moi!.......2007-06-23
This book is more than I had expected. It holds an important place in my Reading Corner, and I have spent bits of time [almost] daily, working at my own pace... and find I am in complete understanding of the entire text... ready to move on to more advanced material.
That I have absorbed this material on my own, without an instructor, is -- to me! -- significant. I recommend this book to those who may be casually interested in learning to decipher Middle Egyptian funerary texts, which in retrospect appears to be a logical way to introduce the language.
== m htp ==
An Excellent Introductory book.......2007-03-09
A top line, well structured book that reads easily with clear explanations. Serious study, guided by this book will provide a good foundation for further study of this fascinating language.
Unclear.......2007-02-17
Though I found this book somewhat useful. I also found there to be many inaccurate translations. In ancient Egypt, they read from either left to right, top to bottom or bottom to top, however, never did they read from right to left. When I seek to add to my knowledge in any ancient language, I seek to learn it as they would have read it and in this book, it was confusing as the authors guide you through as if reading the english language.
I recommened E.A. Wallis Budge's Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphics a much more accurate source as he breaks it down, and yet guides you easier and with less confusion in how the ancients would have read the script.
Amazon.com
Harold Bloom's urgency in How to Read and Why may have much to do with his age. He brackets his combative, inspiring manual with the news that he is nearing 70 and hasn't time for the mediocre. (One doubts that he ever did.) Nor will he countenance such fashionable notions as the death of the author or abide "the vagaries of our current counter-Puritanism" let alone "ideological cheerleading." Successively exploring the short story, poetry, the novel, and drama, Bloom illuminates both the how and why of his title and points us in all the right directions: toward the Romantics because they "startle us out of our sleep-of-death into a more capacious sense of life"; toward Austen, James, Proust; toward Thomas Mann, Toni Morrison, and Cormac McCarthy; toward Cervantes and Shakespeare (but of course!), Ibsen and Oscar Wilde.
How should we read? Slowly, with love, openness, and with our inner ear cocked. Then we should reread, reread, reread, and do so aloud as often as possible. "As a boy of eight," he tells us, "I would walk about chanting Housman's and William Blake's lyrics to myself, and I still do, less frequently yet with undiminished fervor." And why should we engage in this apparently solitary activity? To increase our wit and imagination, our sense of intimacy--in short, our entire consciousness--and also to heal our pain. "Until you become yourself," Bloom avers, "what benefit can you be to others." So much for reading as an escape from the self!
Still, many of this volume's pleasures may indeed be selfish. The author is at his best when he is thinking aloud and anew, and his material offers him--and therefore us--endless opportunities for discovery. Bloom cherishes poetry because it is "a prophetic mode" and fiction for its wisdom. Intriguingly, he fears more for the fate of the latter: "Novels require more readers than poems do, a statement so odd that it puzzles me, even as I agree with it." We must, he adjures, crusade against its possible extinction and read novels "in the coming years of the third millennium, as they were read in the eighteenth and nineteenth century: for aesthetic pleasure and for spiritual insight."
Bloom is never heavy, since his vision quest contains a healthy love of irony--Jedediah Purdy, take note: "Strip irony away from reading, and it loses at once all discipline and all surprise." And this supreme critic makes us want to equal his reading prowess because he writes as well as he reads; his epigrams are equal to his opinions. He is also a master allusionist and quoter. His section on Hedda Gabler is preceded by three extraordinary statements, two from Ibsen, who insists, "There must be a troll in what I write." Who would not want to proceed? Of course, Bloom can also accomplish his goal by sheer obstinacy. As far as he is concerned, Don Quixote may have been the first novel but it remains to this day the best one. Is he perhaps tweaking us into reading this gigantic masterwork by such bald overstatement? Bloom knows full well that a prophet should stop at nothing to get his belief and love across, and throughout How to Read and Why he is as unstinting as the visionary company he adores. --Kerry Fried
Book Description
Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom begins this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty years, Bloom has transformed college students into lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for literature. Now, at a time when faster and easier electronic media threatens to eclipse the practice of reading, Bloom draws on his experience as critic, teacher, and prolific reader to plumb the great books for their sustaining wisdom.
Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.
Customer Reviews:
Close, but not quite right........2007-03-05
... we all know children in today's grade schools are moving farther away from books and a whole lot closer to My Space for their reading pleasures. Bloom wrote this book to address this and one other concern, that being that universities aren't any healthier for us than My Space when it comes to reading, and reading the right way. Bloom says to read deeply, often, and for yourself without studying the how's and why's using this or that theory of criticism that we're taught in university. I can't agree more after having done a masters degree in English literature. I hated reading after graduating and it took me years to get back into reading for my own true pleasure. For that reason, I like this book. That being said, I think Bloom misses the mark somewhat on what we should read. I've read a lot of the books on his list (Western Canon my bum) and I have to say, many of them are about as interesting, engaging, and exciting as reading as those same My Space pages I mentioned earlier. There is a lot of good literature out there that isn't Shakespeare, Milton, Melville, Emerson, etc. All the good writers aren't dead, Mr Bloom. He's right about the problem but fixing it isn't going to happen by prescribing my fourteen year old a healthy dose of Ibsen, Milton and Emily Dickinson, though everyone could use a taste of Calvino once in a while.
I read somewhere that Bloom said something 'mean' about Stephen King's writing. I don't read King, but at least if my kid is reading that, she's not on the computer all day long. I wonder what Bloom thinks of JK Rowling.
Difficult Book with Some excellent Literary Summaries.......2006-10-11
After reading Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, I was interested in what this author had to say about the how and why of reading the major western literary classics. The author makes the following points; "WHY" to read, 1) to strengthen the self. Reading is a selfish act, to improve oneself as opposed to improving your neighbor or neighborhood "HOW" to read, 2) clear the mind of all the factional, and political ideas of the current time period when the reader is seeking the universality of the spirit. 3) the recovery of the ironic .
The author judges the works by looking for the unique way that certain universal human traits are treated in great works of western literature. The author explains the concept of reading by practicing "overhearing". The concept was lost upon this reader. This reader felt like he
missed some of the foundation terms and principals of the book. From the text one can tell the author has dedicated hours to reading and re-reading the classics. Harold Bloom is a Yale professor with many awards to his credit. I appreciated the quick synopsis of the text or selected poem to bring out themes and thoughts I would have otherwise missed., All in all, the author's concepts are difficult to fully absorb, but his summary of literary works has to spark some interest in some area of the literary classics.
So-So.......2006-09-16
Literary critic should have titled this little guide `What to Read and Why,' seeing as he devotes only a few paragraphs to why reading might be valuable. That said, Bloom is a terrifyingly accomplished reader, but he isn't much of a thinker or a critic in the way Benjamin or Derrida were. Bloom's incessant propensity to judge all literature from the `how is this compared to Shakespeare' lens is foolish and lacking in any insight. At times his criticism seems almost amateurish and rushed. He doesn't seem to be a very good reader of Hemingway, for instance. At the outset of a review of `Hills Like White Elephants,' Bloom writes that "Hemingway's personal mystique-his bravura poses as warrior, big-game hunter, bullfighter, and boxer-is irrelevant to `Hills Like White Elephants' as its male protagonist's insistence that `You know that I love you'" (47). Yet later in Bloom's review, he writes [on `The Snows of Kilimanjaro']: The irony is at Hemingway's expense, insofar as Harry prophesies the Hemingway who, nineteen days shor of his sixty-second birthday, turned a double-barreled shotgun on himself" (49). Bloom seems to have reversed tactics here. Never the less, Bloom is an undeniably great reader of poetry; in this volume he tells you all about his personal favorites: Stevens, Whitman, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, etc. Kind of fun, but far from great criticism.
Bloom: To Know How Is To Know Why.......2006-02-12
For those who purchase Harold Bloom's HOW TO READ AND WHY, they probably expect a companion piece to HOW TO READ A BOOK by Mortimer Adler. With Adler, there is truth in advertising; his focus is indeed on the how. He emphasizes the more traditional skills of main idea, inference, conclusion, and details, all of which must be used to come to terms with the author. Bloom, however, starts where Adler leaves off. Bloom assumes that the reader knows how to meld his mind with that of the author. His focus on the how is really quite simple: the reader should read slowly, reread often and aloud, and allow his own ears to hear and overhear what words of wisdom fall from the lips of literature's most immortal characters. When Hamlet laments the common fate of man in any of his seven soliloquies, Bloom urges the reader to do more than just read; the reader should become Hamlet and speak as the troubled Dane does. It is only when the reader intones along with Hamlet, as opposed to passively listening to Olivier or Brannagh, that this reader becomes Hamlet and insinuates himself into a world of irony that Bloom relentlessly insists forms the philosophical underpinning of Shakespeare's moral vision. The great poems deserve no less. Bloom claims that poetry, like drama, is best appreciated in solitude and when spoken aloud by the reader.
The why of reading is also uncomplicated. The purpose of reading immortal literature, to Bloom, has little to do with ideology or any other attempt to view that work through a critical lens of one 'ism' or another. The why of reading is more personal, more selfish than that. The reader reads to improve himself, to become a better person. The wisdom that infuses any classical piece of writing is useful only insofar as it contributes to the moral growth of the reader. Since most of Bloom's book resembles a digressive tour through a sampling of his favorite works and authors, the novice reader might walk away with the idea that HOW TO READ AND WHY is little more than a folksy rehash of Intro to Lit 101. The truth is more illusive. In his discourses, Bloom does more than simply analyze what makes one character act the way that he does. Bloom humanizes that character by taking that character's words, thoughts, and deeds and making them his own. To become that character, then, in Bloom's vision quest, is, in Adler's terms, to come to terms with that author. The metamorphosis of self is a process of slow accretion, possibly granting that each tick on the clock of rereading brings the reader ever closer to union with the author. The end, of course, to Bloom, to Adler, to anyone who wishes to know and grow is to witness the birth of a new reader, one who is infinitely wiser and happier than his predecessor.
Literacy Guide.......2005-08-19
Bloom's title could not help but appeal to a typical Language Arts teacher in a typical high school. I am facing a school with a history of poor literacy skills in a district with a similiar history. Most literacy programs use a 5th and 6th grade approach with high school students who have scored at that level, and wonder why they are not very successful. Bloom writes for adults, and his approach could well undergird an introduction to remedial readers in high school.
Amazon.com
A good observer of nature, walking, say, in an oak forest, may discern that some of the acorns on which he or she is treading are broken into little bits. After reading wildlife interpreter and photographer Paul Rezendes's guidebook to animal signs, that same observer will be able to tell which of those acorns have been split by human footsteps and deer hooves and which have been gnawed apart by squirrels--and by what species of squirrel. A wonderfully thorough, well-illustrated compendium, Rezendes's text covers a wide range of North American animal species, including rodents, hoofed animals, bears, raccoons, opossums, and members of the weasel, rabbit, dog, and cat families. He describes not only the signs these animals leave but also their ways of life throughout the year, and with an appropriately environmentalist purpose. "Ultimately," Rezendes writes, "tracking an animal makes us sensitive to it--a bond is formed, an intimacy develops. We begin to realize that what is happening to the animals and to the planet is actually happening to us." He's right, of course, but one need not take such a macrocosmic view of nature to take pleasure in, and learn from, this fine book. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In this newly revised and updated edition of his highly acclaimed field guide, renowned nature photographer and tracking expert Paul Rezendes brings the fields and forests to life with his unique observations on North American wildlife and their tracks and sign. Illustrated with hundreds of his original photographs, Tracking & the Art of Seeing provides complete information on the behavior and habitat of over 50 animal species and shows you how to identify animals by their tracks, tail patterns, droppings, dens, scratches and other signs.
Customer Reviews:
Tracking and the Art of Seeing.......2007-05-30
I live in southeast Alaska and this is the book I have been looking for years. I love it! It goes into such depth, but it is simple to understand.
I enjoy hiking and like being more informed of who/what has also pased this way before me. Great Resource for anybody who enjoys hiking. The photo's are excellent.
quite simply excellent.......2007-05-04
I am an old guy-pushing 60-and have examined books on tracking ever since I was a child. No other book compares to this one. I purchased it based on the positive Amazon reviews and on this book they were right on the mark. I mean, this guy not only provides excellent photos of tracks, he has photos of the ANIMALS' FEET! What a simple yet sensible idea! I very much like his philosophy of tracking, his emphasis on looking at the whole picture of the impact an animal makes on its environment. Good job, Mr. Rezendes.
Excellent introduction.......2003-08-22
This book provides an excellent introduction to reading animal tracks. In the first chapter the author explains why we should try to understand the tracks around us in the forest, and what we might see. He then delves into the kinds of observations we need to make, such as trail widths and trail patterns and scat. The rest of the book is divided into chapters by animal family, including chapters for rodents, rabbits, weasels, dogs, cats, bears, and hoofed animals. There is also an extensive bibliography and index.
Each chapter is comprised of short articles about the specifics of tracking the individual animals that make up the family covered in the chapter. Rezendes provides a short informative description of the animal with a color photograph. The descriptions cover behavior, range, and diet. Rezendes also includes black and white photos of the animal's feet, both front and back. The next section of the article covers tracks and trail patterns, and it includes illustrations or diagrams, photographs, and typical trail width and stride measurements, as well as a lot of information to help you sort out this critter's tracks from all the others out there. He also includes short sections on signs, such as dens, food caches, kill sites, and scat, also with photographs or illustrations.
I purchased this book after moving out into the country because I wanted to identify the critters that visited at night leaving their tracks in the snow around our house. I found Rezendes' approach captivating and easy to understand, even as a beginner. Rezendes explains how tracks can tell us much more than just the identity of an animal- -through a careful study of tracks, you can determine how fast the animal was moving, whether it was browsing, being chased, or chasing another. This book is a highly informative reference; it's also a delightful read on a blustery winter afternoon.
Best Tracking Book to Be Found.......2003-02-17
This is a truly magnificent tracking book. The book has no pseudo-spiritual dribble about tracking ants across rocks or pressure points; it is full of useful information, and it is clear that the author is as genuine of an expert naturalist as they get. He shares an incredible wealth of information on how to examine and analyze the wilderness from a microcosmic level. The photography is outstanding and the descriptions of animal signs are excellent. Being a survival instructor, I have read many fine books on tracking animals and observing their signs, but I have never read one that I learned more from than this one.
My First Choice.......2002-02-23
I do a lot of tracking, both animal and human. I have read most books on the subject in print. This book is excellent for the beginner and expert and focuses on animal tracking. Rezendez helps the tracker learn both the animals track characteristics and its living habits. If I had to recommend only one book on tracking, this would be it, hands down.
Book Description
Modern art, filled with complex themes and subtle characteristics, is a wonder to view, but can be intimidating for the casual observer to comprehend. In this accessible, practical guide, author and instructor Jon Thompson explores more than 200 works, helping readers to unlock each paintingÂ's meaning.
Beginning with the Barbizon school and the Realist movement of the mid-19th century and continuing through the 1980s avant-garde, artists including Bonnard, Basquiat, Van Gogh, Picasso, Degas, Warhol, and Whistler are featured. Thompson describes each artistÂ's use of media and symbolism and provides insightful biographical information. A natural companion to AbramsÂ' How to Read a Painting, this book is a vibrant, informative trip through one of art historyÂ's most compelling periods.
Customer Reviews:
interesting details.......2007-05-21
this is a great resource for teachers of art and art history. Thompson digs out some great details that I havent come across elsewhere
Average customer rating:
- Context and Content
- Good guide for the student
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How to Read a Poem
Terry Eagleton
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
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ASIN: 1405151412 |
Book Description
In this witty, accessible book, Terry Eagleton argues that the art of reading poetry is as much in danger of becoming extinct as thatching or clog dancing. On the whole, students today are not taught how to be sensitive to language - how to read a poem with due attention to its tone, mood, pitch, pace, rhythm and texture, rather than just to 'what it says'. To demonstrate how this works in practice, the author takes a wide range of poems from the Renaissance to the present day and submits them to brilliantly illuminating close analysis. As one of the world's leading literary theorists, Eagleton also summons the aid of such pioneering critics as the Russian Formalists to raise some provocative general questions: bull; bull;What is poetry, and how does it differ from prose? bull;Is there a language peculiar to poetry? bull;What exactly do we mean by imagery? Lucid, entertaining and full of insight, How To Read A Poem is designed to banish the intimidation that too often attends the subject of poetry, and in doing so to bring it into the personal possession of the students and the general reader.
Customer Reviews:
Context and Content.......2007-03-07
I think this may be a book for people who have bought; read and enjoyed poetry beyond the duties of formal education. Terry Eagleton brings so much more to the reading of a poem -and still rings true.
Good guide for the student.......2006-10-27
In mostly eschewing theoretic jargon, or by giving clear examples to explain the jargon used, Eagleton has written an excellent guide for the academic reader. I stipulate this qualification because the mythical Common Reader would probably be put off by the detailed explanation of such things as the theories of the Russian Formalists and their disciples that take up several chapters. While Eagleton remains a proud card-carrying Theorist (an academic species he feels has been grossly misunderstood), he does the heavy lifting for the reader so, with only a modicum of effort, his arguments can usually be easily followed.
All this would be beside the point unless he had some illuminating things to say about the structure of poetry and how to approach the critical reading of a poem. Happily he does, which makes this short volume repay any effort it takes to read.
Unlike Harold Bloom, he expects little on faith from the reader and makes the necessary effort to convince you of his points. And although his Marxist sentiments are frequently in evidence, he never becomes heavy-handed and uses his bias more for flavoring than the meal itself.
So like many critical guides, what your needs are going in will determine your satisfaction coming out. For the general reader, Stephen Fry's "The Ode Not Taken" might be a better fit. For the serious student of literature, Mr. Eagleton's guide is a worthwhile investment.
Book Description
Churches and cathedrals were originally built to be read. They are alive with images and symbols--all of which are packed with meaning. But today few people, from regular visitors to tourists, truly understand the wealth of meaning in what they find there.
How to Read a Church is must reading for anybody who wants to know more about what they see in a church or cathedral. It explores the principal features of churches and what each represents. It also explains: " the significance of church layout " the importance of such details as the use of colors or letters " the identity and significance of people and scenes " the symbolism of animals, plants, colors, numbers, and letters " the meaning of it all
In addition to exploring these brick-and-mortar motifs, the author also reveals fascinating and unexpected details such as how to 'read' the priest and the congregation, and he shows the varied ways that church architecture and appointments reflect the Christian year. From major themes to small but vital details, How to Read a Church will serve as a fascinating guide to the history, meanings, and messages of these beautiful buildings and the treasures they contain.
Customer Reviews:
Informed, well-written.......2007-06-07
This is a well-written, religiously neutral excursion of the visual symbols and elements of the Christian church, more or less as it exists today and leaning somewhat to the Anglican church. It is not a history of Christian church architecture or symbols through the ages though the author seems to be fairly conversant with the relevant art history. It is no more or less than a brief description of what is behind what you'd see in an English church, with accounts of the lives of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Peter and all the rest, in case you know absolutely nothing.
The charming churches the author is most familiar with are relics, and efforts like this one that may in some way preserve them are good. They, the churches of the past, are as much like America's mega-churches as flowers are like asphalt. I don't know if they have mega-churches in Europe. I don't think so. They, the mega-churches, help us envision the utter banality of the age to come. And what a long way we have traveled since Chartres.
The author is studiously non-evangelistic, which is good, but one feels the absence of faith in or hope for anything beyond the obvious at all. It is really a rather light-hearted anatomy of Christian churches lacking souls. Without the inner aspiration to meaningfulness, without the generations of people who at least sometimes wished to live as Christ taught, it's all rather hollow.
Interpreting art and architecture.......2007-06-05
Ever wonder why some saints in paintings and sculpture have square haloes? Why columns have foliate capitals? And what are all those hand signals? Richard Taylor explains in How to Read a Church, written not as a scholastic thesis but as a general guide for lay persons. The basic layout of churches, the number and placement of stained glass windows, the grouping of figures and how to identify who's who - all of this can be helpful in figuring out what the builders and decorative artists were trying to convey to those viewing and appreciating the results of their labors. The book works as a resource, and does not have to be read from cover to cover. Individual chapters, such as that on styles of crosses, can be read separately and perused at leisure. Nice resource.
Terrific resource.......2007-03-07
Taylor's book is a terrific resource explaining a much misunderstood subject. Churches are indeed designed to be 'read'; to be, in the words of another reviewer, "a feast for the senses." Taylor explains that classical church architecture reflects the understanding that a church is a ship (the word 'nave,' referring to the interior of a church, is from the Latin 'navis' for ship) sailing the faithful to a New Jerusalem, led by their 'captain' priest. Rich eucharistic symbols like the pelican, a bird which feeds its young with its blood, are explained in detail. Were more people to absorb the lessons of this book, we perhaps would see an end to the artless, crude church designs that have dominated over the past 40 years.
a misnomer of a book.......2007-01-10
While the contents of the book are most interesting the author does not deal at any length with the specifics outlined in the title. The bulk of the text deals with in-depth explanations of various bible characters and stories. The couple of line drawings towards the end of the book show captions to explain various parts of the garmets illustrated but NOT all of them are explained and then other descriptive words are introduced which are not shown on the illustrations. I did read the entire book and it was rather a disappointment.
Point of Clarification.......2006-06-17
I've not yet finished the book, but early on Mr. Taylor mentions that the "Catholic Church 'banned' the Latin Mass in order to increase participation by the laity.
Whatever the high points of this book may be, the Church never "banned" the Latin Mass. In fact, the Second Vatican Council, which ALLOWED for some parts of the mass to be translated into the vernacular, also encouraged local parishes to catechize (educate) their members in the basic Latin prayers of the Mass so they could participate. It appears that it was easier to translate the mass into dozens of different languages than it was to get Catholics to learn a few phrases and prayers in Latin. At any rate, the Latin Mass is still celebrated with great enthusiasm and beauty in parishes all over the world (unfortunately some of them are schismatic, but many are in communion with Rome). As for the vernacular mass, "full and active participation" is a rarity in most parishes.
Pope Benedict has reiterated this call for Catholics to learn some of the basic prayers in Latin so that in this truly global society we may pray together with one voice.
Back to the book - Mr. Taylor's premise is dead on; Churches were meant to be read - to create a feast for the senses and create an atmosphere of awe and sanctity. i look forward to finishing the text, and perhaps using it as a textbook for a class.
Amazon.com
Edward Hirsch's primer may very well inspire readers to catch the next flight for Houston and sign up for any and all of his courses. Not for nothing does this attentive and adoring poet-teacher title his book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry; Hirsch's big guide to getting the most out of this form is packed with inspiring examples and thousands of epigrams and allusions. Above all, he is intent on poetry's physical and emotional power. In chapters devoted to the lyric, the narrative, the poetry of sorrow, of ecstasy, of witness, Hirsch continually conveys the sheer ecstasy of this vital act of communication. (He takes us, for instance, with great care and mounting excitement, through Emily Brontë's "Spellbound," which he discovered at age 8 when "baseball season was over for the year.") Above all, there is the thrill of discovery as Hirsch offers up works by artists ranging from Anna Akhmatova to Walt Whitman, Elizabeth Bishop to Adam Zagajewski, and everyone in between. I defy you not to fall in love with Wislawa Szymborska on the basis of "The Joy of Writing," which begins:
Why does this written doe bound through these written woods?
For a drink of written water from a spring
whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle?
Why does she lift her head; does she hear something?
Perched on four slim legs borrowed from the truth,
she pricks up her ears beneath my fingertips.
Elsewhere, Hirsch's section on Sterling Brown's redefinitions of African American work songs should put this neglected poet back on the map. And his introductions to Eastern European poets such as Jirí Orten, Attila József, and Miklós Radnóti will make you want to ferret out their hard-to-find work. (Perhaps his publisher should put out a companion anthology...)
Hirsch manages to cram entire worlds and lives into 258 pages of text (which he follows up with a huge glossary and extended reading list). His two paragraphs on Juan Gelman, whose son was murdered and pregnant daughter-in-law disappeared during Argentina's "Dirty War," bring this man's art into clear, tragic focus. But even here, the compulsively generous author is compelled to enshrine the words of other critics, foregrounding Eduardo Galeano and Julio Cortázar, who describes Gelman's art as "a permanent caress of words on unknown tombs." What a pleasure it is to be inside Hirsch's head! He seems to have read everything and absorbed most of it, and he wears his considerable scholarship lightly. Many of his fellow poets have suffered for their art, have been imprisoned and killed--but above all, Hirsch makes us realize that, no matter what the artist's circumstances, subject, or theme, "the stakes are always high" in this game that writer and reader alike must keep playing. --Kerry Fried
Book Description
How to Read a Poem is an unprecedented exploration of poetry and feeling. In language at once acute and emotional, distinguished poet and critic Edward Hirsch describes why poetry matters and how we can open up our imaginations so that its message can make a difference. In a marvelous reading of verse from around the world, including work by Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, and Sylvia Plath, among many others, Hirsch discovers the true meaning of their words and ideas and brings their sublime message home into our hearts. A masterful work by a master poet, this brilliant summation of poetry and human nature will speak to all readers who long to place poetry in their lives.
Customer Reviews:
Bought for Poetry writing course.......2007-04-07
Bought for poetry writing course, was helful but slow read.
Like an old glove, it gets better with age..........2007-03-09
I tend to think of this book as I do my seasoned, battered first baseman's mitt, which accompanied me through eight seasons of championship Senior Mens' Hardball in the Northwest.
As I grow older, I become more appreciative of Ed Hirsch's spiritual gift. It is no small feat to mentor well, especially in a field as suspicious as poetry, but Hirsch manages quite well, with no lies and no breaking of hands, with no disillusion or politicking. By sharing his passion and speaking honestly and humbly from his heart, he presents a compelling case for reading poetry, for reading at all for enjoyment, love, and salvation. It's a necessary book, and I wish I had written it myself. It is a superior substitute for extended, engaging conversation. I'm glad we have it, and that someone as capable as Ed Hirsch has made himself and his insights available to us.
Robert McDowell, author of the forthcoming Poetry In Your Spiritual Practice
Too simple, too personal.......2006-09-27
This book is for people who never read poetry or "just don't get it" when they do.
The author focuses on why he fell in love with each poem, information that I found boring because of the way it was delivered. He then picks apart the poems (sometimes cutting out every line, sometimes grabbing at random bits). It takes away from the magic of a poem when someone uses pages upon pages trying to explain why it is beautiful or moving. Those things must be felt - gained from the poem itself.
There are so many ways in which this book could have been written that would have made it uplifting, touching, or, at the very least, not boring.
What goes out from the heart enters the heart.......2005-05-08
There is a Jewish teaching, that something said from the heart enters the heart. Hirsch's love of poetry is the dominant theme here, an enthusiasm he teaches in every line he writes. He cites Rilke as saying that poetry should be an ' experience' something felt and sensed directly. And poetry is clearly that for Hirsch.
Those of us who have read poetry all our lives, and found in it a special gift and power, a special consolation and source of strength know and understand the kind of ' love' Hirsch is talking about.
Poetry can enhance life and give us strength in it. If this work succeeds in bringing more readers into the circle of loving poetry then it will certainly have done work of value.
But... How to Read a Poem?.......2004-09-28
Edward Hirsch has written a meticulous analysis of the art of poetry, imbued with an authentic love of the form. From page to page he dissects and interprets; his enthusiasm remains high throughout. Not just the poetry, but also the poets themselves are lavished with heroic praise, their craft transcending the mortal. Their words are golden strands of virtue more appropriately whispered into the ears of gods.
But, but...
For those of us uneducated in the art of poetry there is a much more basic level of understanding that has to be achieved first: Why no punctuation? Why do sentences break in mid-breath? How does one find the meter in a poem? How does one read poetry without the stops and starts from line to line? Perhaps we should have learned this in school, but we didn't, so we bought this book.
This is a good book, really, but it is not what its title suggests. It should rather be entitled "The Love of Poetry", or "Falling in Love With Poetry", or "Furthering Your Love of Poetry", or something else emotive. "How to Read a Poem" sounds mechanical, the basics, just what those uneducated among us get when we do a keyword search on how to read a poem.
Select another book in order to learn how to read a poem, then graduate to this one once you comprehend the basics.
Average customer rating:
- The Beach as a Book
- A bit of propaganda
- An Ideal Beach Read
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How to Read a North Carolina Beach: Bubble Holes, Barking Sands, and Rippled Runnels
Orrin H. Pilkey ,
Tracy Monegan Rice , and
William J. Neal
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Coastal Fishing in the Carolinas: From Surf, Pier, and Jetty
ASIN: 0807855103
Release Date: 2006-09-26 |
Book Description
Take a walk on the beach with three coastal experts who reveal the secrets and the science of the North Carolina shoreline. What makes sea foam? What are those tiny sand volcanoes along the waterline? You'll find the answers to these questions and dozens more in this comprehensive field guide to the state's beaches, which shows visitors how to decipher the mysteries of the beach and interpret clues to an ever-changing geological story.
Orrin Pilkey, Tracy Monegan Rice, and William Neal explore large-scale processes, such as the composition and interaction of wind, waves, and sand, as well as smaller features, such as bubble holes, drift lines, and black sands. In addition, coastal life forms large and small--from crabs and turtles to microscopic animals--are all discussed here. The concluding chapter contemplates the future of North Carolina beaches, considering the threats to their survival and assessing strategies for conservation. This indispensable beach book offers vacationers and naturalists a single source for learning to appreciate and preserve the natural features of a genuine state treasure.
Customer Reviews:
The Beach as a Book.......2005-08-05
This slim volume should be packed by any reader heading off to the
beach in North Carolina. The underlying theme is vintage Pilkey, the prophetic gadfly of beach development. He and his co-authors want us to understand that we are loving the beaches to death, like children who capture wild things. Beaches are dynamic, explains Pilkey, and all our efforts to stabiize them in some permanent state for our perpetual enjoyment are ultimately doomed. Thanks to the clear diagrams and excellent pictures, beach walkers and vicarious lovers of golden sands will better understand how this fragile system works. We need to read what Pilkey says, even if we don't want him to be right.
A bit of propaganda.......2005-07-20
The author has included information on the topics shown in the title which were interesting and informative however, it is clear that the author is anti-development at the beach and this message comes though time and time again. With this much propaganda against building on the coastline I think the book should have been free.
An Ideal Beach Read.......2004-09-13
This is beach geology 101 rendered in a pleasant and most fluent voice like the best of classic nature writing. The considerable information is meted out in a way that is easily absorbed. Before you reach the end, you are walking on the beach identifying runnels, plunging breakers, nail holes, swash and wrack lines and other exotica without running back to the book for help. You are no longer alarmed at black sand (it's sand of a different mineral base), you have new respect for the heaps of broken shells in your path. You understand how beaches are formed and where sand came from. You now know why a beach never looks the same from one day to the next. You can identify evidence of the mess caused by human intervention. This book will enhance your stay at the beach in ways that whiffle-light detective fiction never will.
Book Description
A guide to the literary aspects of the Bible, this book surveys such biblical forms as narrative, poetry, proverb, gospel, parable, and epistle. It also discusses the literary unity of the Bible.
Customer Reviews:
How To Read The Bible As Literature.......2006-08-28
This book was in very good condition. The cover had been bent, which I knew before I paid for the book, but was still in good condition. The pages were excellent and looked like they had never been used.
A Fine Introduction.......2006-08-23
Ryken does well with his introduction to the Bible as literature. This work is clear and tight, the way such a book ought to be. Perhaps its greatest virtue is that it works within the traditional western categories of literature, explaining them all along (for those of us who don't remember everything from our school days!). As such, the ideas and terms will ring familiar, at least faintly, with most of us educated in the States, and it will offer a sound introduction to the Bible as literature.
With this said, though, perhaps the greatest weakness of this book is that same characteristic. Traditional categories are a good place to start, but the reader must, at some point, go beyond these into the more Hebrew-specific realm of reading. The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament truly is, despite some opinion, a masterful work, but to understand it as such one must become familiar with just how it works. Wonderfully, there are writers, such as Robert Alter and Adele Berlin, who have written well on precisely this topic.
In the end, this book is a great place to start. It offers a well-grounded foundation for reading the Bible literarily, and as long as the reader knows its strengths and limitations, it will serve him well.
Bringing the Bible to the masses, but then what?.......2005-01-30
Despite the fact that Ryken seems more theologically conservative than I find tasteful, this book does a good job of making the Bible accessible to the average reader as a matter more of Western culture than Christian faith. The author's emphasis on literature underscores that the importance of the Bible lies in its ability to communicate by evoking an emotional experience in the reader.
However, as a product of Western literature, there are a few important points Ryken skips over: How can the Biblical stories clearly intended in the Bible as morality tales not become trite and manipulative to postmodern Western audiences? Does the use of metaphor in the Bible invite differing interpretations because each reader will have a different experience of the original metaphor? And perhaps, due to Ryken's Wheaton-based theology, he entirely fails to address overiding themes in the Bible such as the condemnation of hubris and exclusivity.
speedy delivery; wrong book.......2004-09-02
the book did get to me faster than expected. however, it was the wrong edition. it will work for my class, but the picture on the website was not the book i bought. the picture is of the newer edition, which i needed and thought i was buying, but it really was the older edition. somewhat of an upset, but i guess it will have to do.
much to do about nothing.......2003-05-17
The book is well organized, highly researched, and well written, but very boring! It simply analyzes biblical literature to death and makes many of the not so interesting and not so well written parts of the Bible out to be much more than they really are. It's a bit like trying to make the phone book out to be a great piece of literature. It isn't. It is a good source of information and that's all. The Bible has some nice literary parts to it to be sure, but the author stretches the value of much of the literature in the Bible. Her focus on the mundane, was tedious, and left much to be desired. I would have much rather had her be less detailed and cover the more interesting and valid aspects of Biblical literature rather than trying to make even Geneologies and redundant historical accounts out to be more interesting than they really are. Frankly, many of the stories in the Bible are really not that well written and to try and make it seem as though they are is just delusion.
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