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The Art of Reading
- Narrated by: Timothy Spurgin
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
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Publisher's summary
Artful reading - the way we read novels and short stories - is less about reading for specific information and more about reading to revel in the literary experience. Learning the skills and techniques of artful reading can improve your life in many ways, whether you're a fiction reader, an aspiring writer, a book club member, or a student.
And the best part: These skills are not difficult or unwieldy; rather, they are well within your reach. This entertaining, 24-lecture course gives you a veritable toolbox of knowledge and methods to approach even the most daunting reading experience with increased confidence.
You'll learn the definitions and characteristics of terms such as authorship, master plot, and genre. While some of these nuts-and-bolts concepts may be familiar to you, Professor Spurgin examines them from multiple angles, revealing hidden meanings that can escape even experienced readers.
Practical tips and techniques will maximize your effectiveness as an artful reader. You'll see why holding an initial reading session will acquaint you with the author's writing style and the characters, making the book easy to return to even if you take a few days off.
You'll also discover the benefits of "pre-reading" - exploring a book's organization and structure - and how to constantly ask questions to become more deeply involved with the characters and their stories.
Throughout the course, a host of literary "case studies" will refine and elaborate on the concepts of artful reading. Literary examples show how you can finally approach works that, in the past, might have seemed intimidating - making your future reading experiences both more engaging and more enlightening.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
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Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills 3,000 years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. This bold volume outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and other infamous strategists. The 48 Laws of Power will fascinate any listener interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.
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You don't have to be a psychopath to like this.
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Just for the Summer
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Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.
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Good but heavy
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First Lie Wins
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The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.
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What’s The lie?
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The Anxious Generation
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There is no bigger public health story now than the collapse in youth mental health. The numbers are terrifying and dominate our headlines. There has been much debate over how we got here, and what to do next, and bestselling author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is at the white-hot center of that discourse. Haidt has spent his career speaking wisdom and truth into the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the perfect storm contributing to a public health emergency for Gen Z.
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Empower parents, Not governments
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Maybe This Time
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Romance can be a little complicated when you get sucked into a wormhole. Just ask high school English teacher June Flint. One little solar flare happens and suddenly you find yourself 85 years in the future. Eighty-five years from your dream job. Your ailing mother whose only companion in this world is you. Your favorite stuffed-crust pizza from DeLucia’s on Sunday nights. But when June’s cell phone inexplicably picks up a signal, she’s able to call back to the present—more specifically, four weeks before she accidentally time traveled.
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Clean comfort romance
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The Perfect Son
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Erika Cass has a perfect family and a perfect life. Until the evening when two detectives show up at her front door. A high school girl has vanished from Erika's quiet suburban neighborhood. The police suspect the worst - murder. And Erika's teenage son, Liam, was the last person to see the girl alive. Erika has always sensed something dark and disturbed in her seemingly perfect older child. She wants to believe he's innocent, but as the evidence mounts, she can't deny the truth - Liam may have done the unthinkable.
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If you love animals give this one a miss!
- By Rachel on 08-18-22
By: Freida McFadden
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Charles Darwin's theory of organic evolution-the idea that life on earth is the product of purely natural causes, not the hand of God-set off shock waves that continue to reverberate through Western society, and especially the United States. What makes evolution such a profoundly provocative concept, so convincing to most scientists, yet so socially and politically divisive? These 12 eye-opening lectures are an examination of the varied elements that so often make this science the object of strong sentiments and heated debate.
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Not Engaging or Very Interesting
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What listeners say about The Art of Reading
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 01-26-23
Excellent course on artful reading
Entertaining, interesting, clear, useful. A much better way to spend time than watching nonsensical social media video clips.
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- JCM
- 09-15-22
Excellent and entertaining
This was chock full of information every serious reader should have. Timothy Spurgin is engaging and his presentations are as entertaining as they are informative.
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- sarah
- 09-14-19
Understanding the craft of writing as a reader
When reading a book, I wanted to be more understanding/ mindful of what ingredients are used to distinguish a great book from mediocre ones. This was the right book for this objective.
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6 people found this helpful
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- RevolverLight
- 09-10-22
Long but worth it
If you want a fast course on literarure appreciation and profound understanding, this is the right investment for your time.
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- Troy
- 08-14-15
Practical for Readers and Writers
If you're a writer or a literary-minded reader, this set of lectures is insightful and immeasurably practical. The idea is teach styles and literary devices through example of works of great literature. Many of the examples used were not necessarily in my wheelhouse of normal reading, but the lessons still came across easily.
Prof. Spurgin is, on the whole, a good educator. His presentation is clear and well-constructed. I was often distracted, however, his delivery. It came. Across. At times like. William. Shatner. Should have. Been speaking. Ok, perhaps it wasn't quite as bad as all of that, but once noticed, it cannot be unnoticed. If you try this title out, apologies in advance for ruining that for you.
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38 people found this helpful
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- Rosa Arangüena
- 01-19-23
Interesting, insightful, really great course.
Why is this course disappearing from the catalog on February 2022? It is the best course about understanding Literature formally I know, it is greatly didactic and so much fun. I love Spurgin's voice, I love his energy and passion, I love to pieces everything about this course.
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- Mr. Met
- 06-27-21
A foothold on the art of reading fiction and some
I enjoyed this series of lectures on the art of reading fiction. I will most likely listen to the entire series one more time. Not only do you get a foothold on the art of reading but you also get some really good book recommendations.
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- Ari@The Bookish Coven
- 02-03-23
excellent course!
I found the course very interesting and insightful!
Prof Timothy added so many new books to my endless TBR!!
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- AndreaRomance
- 02-04-23
Strongly slanted toward literary fiction
This course should be titled "The Art of Reading Literary Fiction." The instructor tries to be inclusive toward commercial fiction, but it's pretty obvious he doesn't have a good grasp on the nature of commercial fiction. It's possible to tell a complex story using commercial fiction as the container. It's also possible to tell a complex story that isn't depressing.
It annoyed me when he suggested that (1) you should read 50 pages before deciding whether to give up on a novel, and (2) if you DNFed a book in the past, you should try again because you might have a better experience now. There are millions of books you can read, far more than you can read in a lifetime. If you don't enjoy a book, then read something else instead.
If you're a fan of literary fiction, you may find this course more useful than I did.
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- A. Yoshida
- 07-15-23
Good exercises for deeper appreciation of books
This audiobook is for readers who want to understand what makes a book good, bad, slow, fast, etc. It's like a wine-tasting class for drinkers - to expand your vocabulary to describe your experience. For example, an exercise you can do is to write down when characters appear in each chapter. Who appears frequently? Who did you think was an important character but only appeared in a few scenes? Another exercise is to note the point of view (POV). Who is talking? Is the person's view trustworthy? Is the story different when told by someone else (such as an adventure told by Dr. Watson versus Sherlock Holmes).
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