The Whole Five Feet

The Whole Five Feet

Author: Christopher R. Beha

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2010-05-11

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0802199909

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This unique memoir of reading the classics to find strength and wisdom “makes an elegant case for literature as an everyday companion” (The New York Times Book Review). While undergoing a series of personal and family crises, Christopher R. Beha discovered that his grandmother had used the Harvard Classics—the renowned “five foot shelf” of great world literature compiled in the early twentieth century by Charles William Eliot—to educate herself during the Great Depression. He decided to follow her example and turn to this series of great books for answers—and recounts the experience here in a smart, big-hearted, and inspirational mix of memoir and intellectual excursion that “deftly illustrates how books can save one’s life” (Helen Schulman). “As he grapples with the death of his beloved grandmother, a debilitating bout with Lyme disease and other major and minor calamities, Beha finds that writers as diverse as Wordsworth, Pascal, Kant and Mill had been there before, and that the results of their struggles to find meaning in life could inform his own.” —The Seattle Times “An important book [and] a sheer blast to read.” —Heidi Julavits


Summary of Christopher R. Beha's The Whole Five Feet

Summary of Christopher R. Beha's The Whole Five Feet

Author: Milkyway Media

Publisher: Milkyway Media

Published: 2024-07-22

Total Pages: 45

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Get the Summary of Christopher R. Beha's The Whole Five Feet in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. “The Whole Five Feet" by Christopher R. Beha chronicles the author's journey through the Harvard Classics, a 51-volume collection of significant literary works. The narrative begins with Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, setting a tone of self-improvement and moral reflection. Beha navigates through philosophical dialogues by Plato, meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and the poetic works of Milton, finding personal resonance in their timeless wisdom...


The Pleasures of Reading

The Pleasures of Reading

Author: Catherine Sheldrick Ross

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2014-06-27

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 1610694333

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Based on years of ground-breaking research, this book supplies a look at the unique relationship between each text and the individual reader that results in a satisfying, pleasurable, and even life-changing reading experience. Following up on her critically acclaimed Reading Matters: What the Research Reveals about Reading, Libraries, and Community, Catherine Sheldrick Ross takes a new look at pleasure reading through 30 thought-provoking essays based on themes arranged from A to Z. In short lively chapters, she discusses topics ranging from "Alexia," "Bad Reading," and "Changing Lives" to "Romance Fiction," "Self-help," "Titles," "Vampires," and "Year of Reading." Drawing on her own research as well as other published sources, Ross comments on the significance of each theme, provides examples of the phenomenon, and develops the topic chronologically, through further examples, or through reversals. The essays are unified by an underlying theory of reading that views readers as sense-makers, actively engaged in reading themselves into the text and reading the texts back into their own lives. It gives educators and librarians insights into their roles with readers and offers a message about the importance of pleasure reading. A short list of resources for further reading is supplied with each topic.