The Art of X-Ray Reading

How the Secrets of 25 Great Works of Literature Will Improve Your Writing

By: Roy Peter Clark

Narrated by: Jefferson Mays

Roy Peter Clark, one of America's most influential writing teachers, offers writing lessons we can draw from 25 great texts.

Where do writers learn their best moves? They use a technique that Roy Peter Clark calls X-ray reading, a form of reading that lets you penetrate beyond the surface of a text to see how meaning is actually being made. In The Art of X-Ray Reading, Clark invites you to don your X-ray reading glasses and join him on a guided tour through some of the most exquisite and masterful literary works of all time, from The Great Gatsby to Lolita to The Bluest Eye, and many more. Along the way, he shows you how to mine these masterpieces for invaluable writing strategies that you can add to your arsenal and apply in your own writing. Once you've experienced X-ray reading, your writing will never be the same again.

Critic reviews

"Just when you think Clark, who has written some of the best books on the writer's craft, has covered everything related to the subject, he digs deep into literature and excavates a gold mine of artistic strategies for great writing....With lively, colorful writing and inspired practical advice, this guide earns a spot along with Clark's Writing Tools as essential reading for writers. Recommended for book lovers as well."—Kirkus (Starred Review)

"This book sits on the (well-oiled) hinge between close reading and manual. Roy Peter Clark, who knows a thing or two about the writer's trade, digs into passages of successful writing from King Lear to the Goon Squad in order to unearth such writerly tools as foreshadowing, wordplay, shock value, repetition, rhetorical tropes, soliloquy and many more. It's a delightful read and an illuminating method for beginner or pro."—Janet Burroway, author of Writing Fiction and Losing Tim

"Any honest writer will tell you this: It's not tricks that make you better at crafting prose. It's reading. Lots of reading. Close reading. X-ray reading. Roy Peter Clark decodes brilliant passages so that we can not so much emulate them, but make our own magic."—-Constance Hale, author of Sin and Syntax and Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch

"This enjoyable book is perfect for students, writers, and anyone who wants to learn more about great literature."—Library Journal (starred review)

"This is an infectiously enthusiastic guide to becoming an active reader, an homage to the wealth of meaning in great literature, and a striking demonstration of how that meaning can be transmitted from author to reader across centuries and oceans."—Publishers Weekly

I’ve listened to several writing/reading courses...

This was the best.

Clear. Concise. Great examples.


Dan Janal
Author, “Write Your Book in a Flash”

10/10 would reccomend

orderly, wonderful examples, exaplained in a way that works well with an audio book: often it goes in one ear and out the other, but the structure makes it easier to retain a lot of the material and analysis. the narrator did a great job!

surprisingly fun and informative

What did you love best about The Art of X-Ray Reading?

The excerpts from books I haven't read that are now on my reading list- Clark brought many great passages to my attention! I also did learn to pay closer attention to certain details of good prose as promised by the book. I will give myself permission to slow down and savor good sentences a bit more. Sometimes it seems like good writing and attention to style is overlooked these days and Clark offers a remedy to this.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Art of X-Ray Reading?

The chapter in which the author treats Rachel Carson's 'The Sea Around Us.' Gorgeous excerpts, fascinating analysis.

Have you listened to any of Jefferson Mays’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrator did a great job. The reading is faithful to the erudite yet fun tone of the book and keeps the listener engaged with a warm, lively tone and energy.
My only quibble is that sometimes the reading is a touch too fast- the format of the book is spaced out with lots of excerpts, lists, and new paragraph headings, but without more of a pause between them it isn't always immediately clear in whose voice the narrator is reading- whether it be the author's or a character or author ffrom a referenced book.

SUPERB NARRATION SHOWS HOW GREAT WORKS WORK.

What made the experience of listening to The Art of X-Ray Reading the most enjoyable?

NARRATOR JEFFERSON MAYS SPOKE THE WORDS AS IF HE HAD FELT, THOUGHT, AND WRITTEN THEM HIMSELF. AND WHAT WORDS THEY WERE! INTELLECTUALLY INCISIVE. EMOTIONALLY MOVING. TRUE TO LIFE. NEVER A DULL. GAVE ME A DEEPER APPRECIATION OF LITERATURE -- BY MEANS AND METHODS OF "X-RAY READING."

Who was your favorite character and why?

"KING LEAR" AND "THE GRAPES OF WRATH" WERE FINALLY BROUGHT HOME TO ME AS NEVER BEFORE. OPENED MY EYES, MY MIND, MY HEART.

What does Jefferson Mays bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

LIFE.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

YES. AND I DID SO BY SKIPPING TO THE BOOKS I WAS INTERESTED IN. VERY EASY TO SIFT BACK AND FORTH. KINDA LIKE PANNING FOR GOLD AND FINDING NUGGETS APLENTY.

Any additional comments?

DID I FORGET TO MENTION THE AUTHOR, ROY PETER CLARK? I DID?? GOSH. SORRY. BUT I KNOW MR. CLARK WILL UNDERSTAND. HE IS HUMANE. MR. CLARK WON ME OVER IMMEDIATELY WHEN HE DEDICATED HIS BOOK TO HIS TWO BROTHERS WHO ARE CARING FOR HIS 95-YEAR-OLD MOM. BOOKS ARE GREAT. GOTTA HAVE 'EM. BUT MOM IS SINA QUA NON.

English Teacher's Friend

Great way to look at texts. I'll be passing some tips on to my students.

Easy to listen to, as well.