Vintage Reading: From Plato to Bradbury: A Personal Tour of Some of the World's Best Books

by Robert Kanigel

Overview

Vintage Reading brings eighty of the world’s most unforgettable books out from behind the high castle walls, lowers the drawbridge, and welcomes readers inside. With lively and concise commentary, award-winning author Robert Kanigel throws an arm around the reader and becomes the tour guide to:

• Books That Shaped the Western World
• Books on Everyone’s List of Literary Classics
• Books on Many a List for Burning
• Lighter Fare: Good Reads, Best Sellers
• One-of-a-Kinds
• “But I Know What I Like”: Books on Aesthetics & Style
• Making Hard Work Easy: Great Works of Popularization
• Not Robinson Crusoe…Lesser Known Classics
• The Realm of the Spirit: Holy & Human

From St. Augustine’s Confessions to Dorothy Parker’s Stories, Kanigel presents a unique collection of essays unlike any other stuffy attempt at introducing the modern reader to Great Books.Vintage Reading is welcoming. It opens the door to eighty good books rather than post stern-faced guards around them.

Before writing his critically acclaimed titles The Man Who Knew Infinity and The One Best Way, Kanigel penned these essays to guide time-starved bibliophiles to important books they may have missed. The essays appeared in such publications as Baltimore’s Evening Sun, Cleveland’s Plain Dealer, and The Los Angeles Times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610880039
Publisher:	Bancroft Press
Publication date:	02/25/1998
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	243
File size:	368 KB

About the Author

Robert Kanigel is a winner of the Grady-Stack award for science writing, and winner of Author of the Year honors in 1998 by the 1200-member American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). He is also a National Book Critics Award finalist and a Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist. His The One Best Way was one of four finalists for the Global Business Book Award for biography, co-sponsored by the Financial Times of London and the management consulting firm of Booz-Allen. The Man Who Knew Infinity is now in its fifth paperback printing. His fourth book, High Season: How One French Riviera Town Has Seduced Travelers for Two Thousand Years, was published in June 2002 by Viking Press, and his fifth, Faux Real: Genuine Leather and 200 Years of Inspired Fakes, was published in 2007. His articles and essays have been published in magazines such as The Sciences, American Health, and The New York Times Magazine. His book reviews have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Psychology Today. For many years, he taught writing in the Publications Design Program at the University of Baltimore. Since September 1999, Kanigel has been a professor of science writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and administrator of its new Graduate Program in Science Writing. A Kanigel talk on Vintage Reading was broadcast on C-Span's "About Books" in August 1998.

Editorial Reviews

"A sound springboard into an odyssey of a lifetime, an invaluable reference for personal, high school, and academic libraries, and a brilliant introduction to the world of literature. (Recommended for Grades 9 and up.)"

Book Report

"Thoughtful and trenchant." (STEPHEN DIXON IS A PROFESSOR AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS WRITING SEMINARS PROGRAM, A TWO-TIME NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, A ONE-TIME PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST, AND A SHORT STORY WRITER)

Stephen Dixon

"The essays are light and amusing. Each includes a bit of information about the author, some plot outline, and a reason to read the book. Book groups looking for titles would find this a good choice, as would library users who want a list to guide their reading. Recommended for public libraries."

Library Journal

In [this cozy and enlightening book], Kanigel takes another look at titles as varied as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Nana; The Microbe Hunters and A Bell for Adano; and he makes us want to pick them up again and read what he read. Fun to read and fine fodder for book-discussion groups. And teens suffering through required-reading lists might be captivated by an adult who views the books with pleasure."

Booklist -

“These brief essays on Kanigel's personal choice of best books provide a unique point of view to literature students in search of an overview or comments about their favorite work. The author makes no claim to be scholarly or comprehensive, but has written briefly about enduring books and stories that appeal to his ‘middle-brow’ tastes."

School Library Journal