How to Read and Why

Years ago I read an article in The New Yorker (or maybe New York Magazine -- it's been awhile) about Harold Bloom's nocturnal pattern of staying up all night and reading. He apparently required only a few hours of sleep and spent the rest of his days and nights devouring books. On a typical night, he'd read 2-3 novels! We should be grateful that perhaps the most prolific reader of all time and an academic is able to magnanimously share his reflections in a jargon-free idiom so unlike most literary criticism. His prose is always clear and free of lit. crit. vocabulary that only a specialist would know. For that reason alone, this book is a terrific read -- it makes the reader want to go out and buy all the novels discussed and read them. What could be a better effect that a book that generates increased reading? I've enjoyed the five or so books I've read by Harold Bloom not to mention his "Bloom's Notes" series on great literary works that puts Cliffs Notes to shame. His literary knowledge is so deep and so wide that everyone, even teachers who spent years teaching these books, can pick up some useful information. I particularly enjoyed his emphasis on memorizing poetry and the effect it can have on one's life. He made me run, not walk, to pick up Stendal's The Charterhouse of Parma which I can't wait to read.

I respect the scientific method, and often feel a reverence for it that is akin to religious experience. The same goes for the finest philosophy and precise explorations of the ontological, the epistemological, and the empirical. Psychology has also aroused my deepest curiosity, as has the esoteric, the mystical and the magical, because when you put it all together you feel as if you are looking at the total electromagnetic spectrum of existence. But you really aren’t. Without Shakespeare, Milton, Coleridge, Turgenev, Dickens, Hemingway, Proust, Melville, Faulkner, et al, the messy cacophony of the human condition – and its infinite capacity for good and evil -- is either invisible, or out of focus.This is what I gleaned from reading Harold Bloom’s “How to Read and Why.” Years ago I bought the book hoping to learn how to read, and truly appreciate poetry, but also to gain insight into the very best storytelling in literature. Ironically, I got stumped in the section entitled: “Poems.” So, I put the book aside, and only resumed reading it when I couldn’t stand to read anything else. And it has turned out to be a kind of salvation.Now I feel as if Bloom’s intellectual breadth and detailed knowledge of literature can all but raise the dead. At the very least it can warm the coldest spirit and soften the hardest heart. Bloom’s descriptions of the complex savagery and comedic genius of the most unforgettable characters in world literature serve to redeem us. His account of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” and Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” shock us with lightning revelations as to the true nature of human existence, its cruel ironies, its wicked Norwegian trolls, and “high” society’s meaningless, insincere nonsense.Along the way, Bloom’s intellectual breadth and knowledge of what he calls “The Western Canon,” and its theological functions, can take any susceptible reader to a new level of awareness, both of self and the cosmos. His notion of Shakespeare’s “invention of the human” becomes as palpable as flesh and blood in his explorations of Hamlet, which are as deep and dark as the concept of enigma itself.There are also countless suggestions as to why we should read sprinkled throughout the book at the opportune moments, such as when Bloom has provided a poignant example, or made some very demonstrative point. I have come away from this book convinced that no other medium can transmit such vital information as poetry, drama, the short story, or the novel. These are the real “Reality TV” that we need to be watching – quietly, in the refuge of our study, and in the sanctity of our own soul.

Purchased new and arrived in perfect condition. This book was utilized for one of my creative writing classes.This book is great to help writers understand the background and persepctive about authors, poets, etc. May not be a book everyone will like as it seems Bloom sounds like he's rambling. But pay close attention, he has very good information to share.

Recomiendo este libro para aquellos que quieran aprender sobre cómo profundizar aún más en la práctica de la lectura.

Becoming more balanced, ethically, spiritually and emotionally, is a lifelong endeavor. As Harold Bloom suggests, reading fiction, really meaningful fiction, can help us to advance from one stage to the next and he shows us why. Don't you just love this line by Bloom, "Isabel Archer is the heiress of all the ages, attracts many among us because she is the archetype of all those women, in fiction or in actuality, who are pragmatically doom-eager because they seek complete realization of their potential while maintaining an idealization that rejects selfishness." Bloom goes on but I will not, except to say, he is delicious on James. There are other books on reading, "why and how", for example, Mortimer Adler's, "How to Read". Adler is a philosopher, however, Bloom is a literary scholar and Bloom is my favorite. When reading what Bloom has to say one enters a realm more aesthetic than dry. While both authors have a place on my shelf, I am suggesting that you should read Bloom's book because he invites and seduces you to join the company he keeps. Like Einstein, Bloom believes that imagination is more important than knowledge. If you agree, then, the only thing you will need on your adventure in reading Bloom, is an open mind.

A lovely, unaggressive intro to many classic works and a critical assessment paired with their being excellent teachers of deep and enjoyed reading. Amazing

I purchased the Kindle eBook at a more than average price.Yet I find too many spelling mistakes, font irregularities, sentences running into one another, poor punctuation, and overall a very bad reading experience.The saddest thing about Ebooks is that one can't return them for the quality of the format.

This is a sort of a brief Western Canon, the most popular book written by Bloom. As such, addressed to a larger audience, it is simpler, not divided in three great historical "ages", but rather in the basic genres of literature: short stories, poetry and novel.And it is magnificent. The book goes to some authors (more representative, preferred by the author, historically relevant, or else; it doesn't matter) and from there it reviews some of the works. It doesn't center at all in the English language - it is very good with Borges, Cervantes, Calvino and many other Europeans. The reviews of works is brief (sometimes merely a page) but we get plenty of information. All the canonicals are here, but also some other less "mainstream" - such as Eudora Welty.And all with the passionate, opinionated and very personal style of Harold Bloom, whom we sadly lost only a few months ago. Impossible not to jump to the many references and books it contains.A joy of a book that can be read in one sitting (or two) and which will make any reader to carry on with the works mentioned in its pages.

With the death of Harold Bloom, literature lost a great champion and this book written late in his career is one of hi best. Each section covered sends you scrambling for your bookshelf to read more extensively the author or genre he discovers. I am already on my second read with pencil ready to underline and comment. A truly wonderful read

This is a contagious book. Once you start reading it you want to run madly and take some of the works suggested by the author.Bloom's views on genre, from short stories to novels, are tremendously valuable. I particularly liked his selection on poetry which is surprising and richly combined.In another note I would say that the relation among authors and styles and the combination of names has a meaning on its own sense. The reader may approach to a sort of a vivid intertextuality that triggers ideas and interesting conclusions to get the whole picture of genre, theme and times.Some may ask if a book of reviews may spoil those texts the reader have not undertaken. I would say that, as when you travel to a city, this may work as a guide to walk around without losing important details.Finally, after Bloom's How and Why, it's been a great exercise to ask to myself, "what" did I got from any book I've gone through. Sometimes, my answer matches Bloom's ... sometimes something utterly mine and new comes after the question...