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Readers for Life: How Reading & Listening in Childhood Shapes Us

$38.00

Readers for Life: How Reading & Listening in Childhood Shapes Us

4 in stock

SKU: 9781789149494 Category: Product ID: 843003

Description

Title: Readers for Life: How Reading & Listening in Childhood Shapes Us
Author: GILMAN SANDER L/PYRHOENEN HETA (EDITORS)
Format: HARDCOVER
Publication date: 01/01/2025
Imprint: REAKTION
Price: $38.00
Publishing status: Active

Readers for Life is a collection of essays, mainly specially commissioned for the book, by fiction authors and literary scholars, who reflect on their childhood or adolescent memories of reading. The essays explore how the act of reading shapes an individual, from our formative years into adulthood and beyond. Instead of focusing on reading as an act of escapism, or mere literacy, these writings celebrate reading as a lifelong, joyful experience that intertwines past and present. By revealing our diverse reading histories, the collection fosters awareness of the profound impact of reading on a person’s development and offers readers insights that will enrich their own literary experiences.

Featuring an introduction by editors Sander L. Gilman and Heta Pyrhnen, Readers for Life includes essays by Natalya Bekhta, Peter Brooks, Philip Davis, Linda and Michael Hutcheon, Sander L. Gilman, Daniel Mendelsohn, Laura Otis, Laura Oulanne, Heta Pyrhnen, Salman Rushdie, Cristina Sandu, Pajtim Statovci, and Maria Tatar, as well as an interview with Michael Rosen.

‘Readers for Life will prompt lifelong readers to cast their minds back to their earliest immersion in storyworlds, to beloved books and the people who recommended them. From the spines of the volumes on the shelf, to vivid illustrations, to the reverberation of language, to the mental impressions and ideas shaping their perceptions of experience, the reading recalled by Gilman and Pyrhonen’s contributors opens realms of possibility, invites adventures of perspective-taking, and encourages returns to both refreshing and challenging books.’ Suzanne Keen, author of Empathy and Reading

‘A superb and dazzling collection of twelve unusual and insightful memoirs concerning the value of reading by notable writers such as Salman Rushdie, Peter Brooks, Cristina Sandu, and others. At a time when illiteracy is mounting throughout the world, this book urgently recalls how reading still opens the minds of young people to deal with the conflicts they face, not with guns but with imagination. What a joy to read how these writers have profited from reading!’ ack Zipes, author of Speaking Out

Review: \”A superb and dazzling collection of twelve unusual and insightful memoirs concerning the value of reading by notable writers such as Salman Rushdie, Peter Brooks, Cristina Sander, and others. At a time when illiteracy is mounting throughout the world, this book urgently recalls how reading still opens the minds of young people to deal with the conflicts they face, not with guns but with imagination. What a joy to read how these writers have profited from reading!\”–Jack Zipes, author of \”Speaking Out\” \”Readers for Life will prompt lifelong readers to cast their minds back to their earliest immersion in storyworlds, to beloved books and the people who recommended them. From the spines of the volumes on the shelf, to vivid illustrations, to the reverberation of language, to the mental impressions and ideas shaping their perceptions of experience, the reading recalled by Gilman and Pyrho nen’s contributors opens realms of possibility, invites adventures of perspective-taking, and encourages returns to both refreshing and challenging books.\”–Suzanne Keen, author of \”Empathy and Reading\”

Contents: Setting the Scene Sander Gilman and Heta Pyrhoenen 1 Ask Yourself Which Are the Books You Love Salman Rushdie 2 Portable Magic Maria Tatar 3 The Dream of an Intenser Experience Peter Brooks 4 Reading a deux Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon 5 A Life in Literature Philip Davis 6 Reading (in) my Father’s Shadow Heta Pyrhoenen 7 Reading in Times of War Natalya Bekhta 8 Reading as a Rambunctious Boy-Girl Laura Otis 9 Figuring Stories, and Jumping Off the Page Pajtim Statovci 10 Reading from the Spine Laura Oulanne 11 The American Boy Daniel Mendelsohn 12 A Typewriter’s Travels Cristina Sandu 13 What Did the Bear Think? A Chat with Michael Rosen 14 Words After Sander Gilman References Works Cited Contributors Permissions


Author Biography:

Sander L. Gilman is distinguished professor emeritus of the Liberal Arts and Sciences as well as emeritus professor of psychiatry at Emory University. A cultural and literary historian, he is the author or editor of more than one hundred books, including Jurek Becker: A Life in Five Worlds, Health and Illness: Images of Difference, and Smoke: A Global History of Smoking.

Heta Pyrhnen is professor of comparative literature at the University of Helsinki. She is the author or editor of many books, including Reading Today.


ISBN: 9781789149494
Edition: 01