Harold Bloom How to Read and Why Boston Public Library, Rabb Lecture Hall 6pm

"Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom commences this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. Always dazzling in his ability to draw connections between texts across continents and centuries, Bloom instructs readers in how to immerse themselves in the different literary forms. Bloom's engaging prose and brilliant insights will send you hurrying back to old favorites and entice you to discover new ones. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book. -- from book jacket Harold Bloom's How to Read and Why provides a great framework within which to explore your old favorites and tackle those books you've always meant to read or re-read. Below are some of the titles he recommends. The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov Vintage, $18.00 pb The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Thomas H. Johnson, Editor Little,Brown, $32.50 The Charterhouse of Parma Stendahl A New Translation by Richard Howard Modern Library, $24.95 The Portrait of a Lady Henry James Everyman's Library, $18.95 The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann A New Translation by John E. Woods Vintage, $17.00 pb Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust: Two Novels by Nathanael West New Directions, $8.95 pb As I Lay Dying William Faulkner Vintage, $11.00 pb The Undiscovered Chekhov: Forty Three New Stories Translated by Peter Constantine Seven Stories Press, $24.00 Blood Meridian Or, The Evening Redness in the West Cormac McCarthy Vintage, $13.00 pb Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 1 Marcel Proust The C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilamrtin Translation Revised by J.D. Enright Modern Library, $12.95 pb Rudin on the Eve Ivan Turgenev New Translation by David McDuff Oxford University Press, $10.95 pb The Invisible Man Ralph Ellison Vintage, $12.00 pb The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays Oscar Wilde Edited and With and Introduction by Peter Raby Oxford University Press, $7.95