Why We Read What We Read

Author : Lisa Adams,John Heath
Publisher : Sourcebooks, Inc.
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Best sellers
ISBN : 140221054X

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Why We Read what We Read by Lisa Adams,John Heath Pdf

What do weight loss, evil emperors and tales of redemption have in common? We readers have many dirty little secrets-and our bestselling books are spilling them all. We can't resist conspiratorial crooks or the number 7. We have bought millions of books about cheese. And over a million of us read more than 50 nearly identical books every single year. In Why We Read What We Read, Lisa Adams and John Heath take an insightful and often hilarious tour through nearly 200 bestselling books, ferreting out their persistent themes and determining what those say about what we believe and how we relate to one another. Some of our favorite (and revealing) topics include: --Repeating the Obvious: Diet, Wealth, and Inspiration --Black and White and Read All Over: Good and Evil in Bestselling Adventure Novels and Political Nonfiction --Soul Train: Religion and Spirituality --Hopefully Ever After: Love, Romance and Relationships --Reading for Redemption: Trials and Triumphs in Literary Fiction and Nonfiction --Controversy and Conspiracy in The Da Vinci Code Explore the nature of what and how we read-and what it means for our psyches, our society and our future.

Author : Peter Mendelsund
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 450 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2014-08-05
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780804171649

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What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund Pdf

A gorgeously unique, fully illustrated exploration into the phenomenology of reading—how we visualize images from reading works of literature, from one of our very best book jacket designers, himself a passionate reader. “A playful, illustrated treatise on how words give rise to mental images.” —The New York Times What do we see when we read? Did Tolstoy really describe Anna Karenina? Did Melville ever really tell us what, exactly, Ishmael looked like? The collection of fragmented images on a page—a graceful ear there, a stray curl, a hat positioned just so—and other clues and signifiers helps us to create an image of a character. But in fact our sense that we know a character intimately has little to do with our ability to concretely picture our beloved—or reviled—literary figures. In this remarkable work of nonfiction, Knopf's Associate Art Director Peter Mendelsund combines his profession, as an award-winning designer; his first career, as a classically trained pianist; and his first love, literature—he considers himself first and foremost as a reader—into what is sure to be one of the most provocative and unusual investigations into how we understand the act of reading.

Author : Barbara Oakley, PhD,Terrence Sejnowski, PhD,Alistair McConville
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2018-08-07
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9780525504467

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Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley, PhD,Terrence Sejnowski, PhD,Alistair McConville Pdf

A surprisingly simple way for students to master any subject--based on one of the world's most popular online courses and the bestselling book A Mind for Numbers A Mind for Numbers and its wildly popular online companion course "Learning How to Learn" have empowered more than two million learners of all ages from around the world to master subjects that they once struggled with. Fans often wish they'd discovered these learning strategies earlier and ask how they can help their kids master these skills as well. Now in this new book for kids and teens, the authors reveal how to make the most of time spent studying. We all have the tools to learn what might not seem to come naturally to us at first--the secret is to understand how the brain works so we can unlock its power. This book explains: • Why sometimes letting your mind wander is an important part of the learning process • How to avoid "rut think" in order to think outside the box • Why having a poor memory can be a good thing • The value of metaphors in developing understanding • A simple, yet powerful, way to stop procrastinating Filled with illustrations, application questions, and exercises, this book makes learning easy and fun.

Author : Virginia Woolf
Publisher : Lindhardt og Ringhof
Page : 17 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2022-06-02
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9788728206485

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How Should One Read a Book by Virginia Woolf Pdf

Virginia Woolf dreamed of the Day of Judgment. The "great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen" come to receive their rewards - crowns, laurels, names carved on marble. But, when he sees people coming with books under their arms, God turns to Peter and says: "Look, those need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. "They have loved reading." And this is the essence of her essay - sheer love for the written word: a joy in exploring the thoughts and imaginings of the author. If you sometimes get bogged down in a book, Woolf has produced the perfect self-help manual and motivational guide to reading. If you enjoyed 'How Should One Read a Book?', try 'How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading', by Mortimer J Adler. "To read a novel is a difficult and complex art," says Virginia Woolf. Adeline Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) made an impact during her life, but her fame grew in the decades after her death. The English writer helped launch the use of stream-of-consciousness in literature and was a pioneer of 20th century modernism. Arguably her greatest legacy, though, comes from how her writing helped to inspire the feminist movements of the second half of the 20th century. Along with members of her family and other authors, Woolf helped found the Bloomsbury Group. After she married the political theorist and author Leonard Woolf in 1912, they went on the found the Hogarth Press. Virginia also had a long relationship with the writer Vita Sackville-West. The affair featured in the 2018 movie Vita and Virginia', starring Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debicki, He best-known works include the novels 'Mrs Dalloway', 'To the Lighthouse' and 'Orlando'.

Author : James Clear
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2018-10-16
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780735211308

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Atomic Habits by James Clear Pdf

The #1 New York Times bestseller. Over 20 million copies sold! Translated into 60+ languages! Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights. Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field. Learn how to: make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy); overcome a lack of motivation and willpower; design your environment to make success easier; get back on track when you fall off course; ...and much more. Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

Author : Shane Parrish,Rhiannon Beaubien
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2024-10-15
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780593719978

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The Great Mental Models, Volume 1 by Shane Parrish,Rhiannon Beaubien Pdf

Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.

Author : Daniel J. Levitin
Publisher : Penguin Canada
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2014-08-19
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780143192954

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The Organized Mind by Daniel J. Levitin Pdf

The information age is drowning us in an unprecedented deluge of data. At the same time, we’re expected to make more—and faster—decisions about our lives than ever before. No wonder, then, that the average person reports frequently losing car keys or reading glasses, missing appointments, and feeling worn out by the effort required just to keep up. But somehow some people become quite accomplished at managing information flow. In The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D., uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel—and how readers can use these methods to regain a sense of mastery over the way they organize their homes, workplaces, and lives. With lively, entertaining chapters on everything from the kitchen junk drawer to health care to gambling in Las Vegas, Levitin reveals how new research into the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory can be applied to daily life. His practical suggestions call for relatively minor changes that require little effort but will have remarkable long-term benefits for mental and physical health, productivity, and creativity. This Is Your Brain on Music showed us how to better play and appreciate music through an understanding of how the brain works. The Organized Mind shows us how to navigate the churning flow of information in our daily lives with the same neuroscientific perspective.

Author : Pierre Bayard
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 117 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2010-08-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781596917149

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How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard Pdf

In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of "non-reading"-from books that you've never heard of to books that you've read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.

Author : Mark Seidenberg
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2017-01-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780465080656

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Language at the Speed of Sight by Mark Seidenberg Pdf

In this "important and alarming" book, see why so many American students are falling behind in their reading skills while others around the world excel (New York Times). In 2011, when an international survey reported that students in Shanghai dramatically outperformed American students in reading, math, and science, President Obama declared it a "Sputnik moment": a wake-up call about the dismal state of American education. Little has changed, however, since then: over half of our children still read at a basic level and few become highly proficient. Many American children and adults are not functionally literate, with serious consequences. Poor readers are more likely to drop out of the educational system and as adults are unable to fully participate in the workforce, adequately manage their own health care, or advance their children's education. In Language at the Speed of Sight, internationally renowned cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg reveals the underexplored science of reading, which spans cognitive science, neurobiology, and linguistics. As Seidenberg shows, the disconnect between science and education is a major factor in America's chronic underachievement. How we teach reading places many children at risk of failure, discriminates against poorer kids, and discourages even those who could have become more successful readers. Children aren't taught basic print skills because educators cling to the disproved theory that good readers guess the words in texts, a strategy that encourages skimming instead of close reading. Interventions for children with reading disabilities are delayed because parents are mistakenly told their kids will catch up if they work harder. Learning to read is more difficult for children who speak a minority dialect in the home, but that is not reflected in classroom practices. By building on science's insights, we can improve how our children read, and take real steps toward solving the inequality that illiteracy breeds. Both an expert look at our relationship with the written word and a rousing call to action, Language at the Speed of Sight is essential for parents, educators, policy makers, and all others who want to understand why so many fail to read, and how to change that.

Author : Harold Bloom
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2001-10-02
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780684859071

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How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom Pdf

Bloom, the best-known literary critic of our time, shares his extensive knowledge of and profound joy in the works of a constellation of major writers, including Shakespeare, Cervantes, Austen, Dickinson, Melville, Wilde, and O'Connor in this eloquent invitation to readers to read and read well.

Author : Robert DiYanni
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2022-10-25
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780691206776

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You Are What You Read by Robert DiYanni Pdf

How you can enrich your life by becoming a more skillful and engaged reader of literature We are what we read, according to Robert DiYanni. Reading may delight us or move us; we may read for instruction or inspiration. But more than this, in reading we discover ourselves. We gain access to the lives of others, explore the limitless possibilities of human existence, develop our understanding of the world around us, and find respite from the hectic demands of everyday life. In You Are What You Read, DiYanni provides a practical guide that shows how we can increase the benefits and pleasures of literature by becoming more skillful and engaged readers. DiYanni suggests that we attend first to what authors say and the way in which they say it, rather than rushing to decide what they mean. He considers the various forms of literature, from the essay to the novel, the short story to the poem, demonstrating rewarding approaches to each in sample readings of classic works. Through a series of illuminating oppositions, he explores the paradoxical pleasures of reading: solitary versus social reading, submitting to or resisting the author, reading inwardly or outwardly, and more. DiYanni closes with nine recommended reading practices, thoughts on the different experiences of print and digital reading, and advice on what to read and why. Written in a clear, inviting, and natural style, You Are What You Read is an essential guide for all who want to enrich their reading—and their life.

Author : Julie Morgenstern
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Time management
ISBN : 0340771380

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Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern Pdf

Time management is a skill anyone can learn. Take control of your schedule, connect the activities of your daily life to your deepest big-picture goals, and live the life of your dreams. Julie Morgenstern shows you how.

Author : Stanislas Dehaene
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2009-11-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781101152409

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Reading in the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene Pdf

A renowned cognitive neuroscientist?s fascinating and highly informative account of how the brain acquires reading How can a few black marks on a white page evoke an entire universe of sounds and meanings? In this riveting investigation, Stanislas Dehaene provides an accessible account of the brain circuitry of reading and explores what he calls the ?reading paradox?: Our cortex is the product of millions of years of evolution in a world without writing, so how did it adapt to recognize words? Reading in the Brain describes pioneering research on how we process language, revealing the hidden logic of spelling and the existence of powerful unconscious mechanisms for decoding words of any size, case, or font. Dehaene?s research will fascinate not only readers interested in science and culture, but also educators concerned with debates on how we learn to read, and who wrestle with pathologies such as dyslexia. Like Steven Pinker, Dehaene argues that the mind is not a blank slate: Writing systems across all cultures rely on the same brain circuits, and reading is only possible insofar as it fits within the limits of a primate brain. Setting cutting-edge science in the context of cultural debate, Reading in the Brain is an unparalleled guide to a uniquely human ability.

Author : American Library Association
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 16 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 1953
Category : Libraries
ISBN : UIUC:30112060168629

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The Freedom to Read by American Library Association Pdf

Author : Kirstin Valdez Quade
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2021-03-30
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780393242843

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The Five Wounds: A Novel by Kirstin Valdez Quade Pdf

Winner of the 2021 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Winner of the 2022 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award Finalist for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction • Finalist for the 2022 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel • Finalist for the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize • Finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction One of NPR's Best Books of the Year • A Publishers Weekly and Library Journal Best Book of the Year in Fiction • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fictional Family of the Year • A Booklist Top Ten Book-Group Book of the Year • A Goodreads Choice Awards Best Debut Novel Nominee From an award-winning storyteller comes a stunning debut novel about a New Mexican family’s extraordinary year of love and sacrifice. "Masterly…Quade has created a world bristling with compassion and humanity. The characters and the challenges they face are wholly realized and moving; their journeys span a wide spectrum of emotion and it is impossible not to root for [them]." —Alexandra Chang, New York Times Book Review It’s Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and thirty-three-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his fifteen-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans for personal redemption. With weeks to go until her due date, tough, ebullient Angel has fled her mother’s house, setting her life on a startling new path. Vivid, tender, funny, and beautifully rendered, The Five Wounds spans the baby’s first year as five generations of the Padilla family converge: Amadeo’s mother, Yolanda, reeling from a recent discovery; Angel’s mother, Marissa, whom Angel isn’t speaking to; and disapproving Tíve, Yolanda’s uncle and keeper of the family’s history. Each brings expectations that Amadeo, who often solves his problems with a beer in his hand, doesn’t think he can live up to. The Five Wounds is a miraculous debut novel from a writer whose stories have been hailed as “legitimate masterpieces” (New York Times). Kirstin Valdez Quade conjures characters that will linger long after the final page, bringing to life their struggles to parent children they may not be equipped to save.