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.

29 people found this helpful

Very informative and unexpectedly funny

I expected a lot from this series of lectures: inspiration to read (even) more, freshening up my college knowledge, learning new things and the opportunity to do all that whilst commuting by bus looking like a serious young business woman.

Unfortunately, the narrator is so enthusiastic and driven that a serious listening attitude was not always applicable and at times I found myself unexpectedly giggling at best, squeaking audibly with delight at worst. How I would have loved to be in this professor's class room!

The lectures are well organized and clear, the narrator keeps a nice pace and is very easy to understand.

Additionally, through these lectures I have discovered some intriguing new titles to try my new found expert reading skills on.

16 people found this helpful

Deepens my reading

Excellent! A charming, humorous teacher and many tips about how to see more in the fiction I'm going to read anyway. This is basically an introductory course on literary analysis, I'd say, and I loved the concepts of watching for the initial destabilizing event, and the two "master plots" --- a stranger comes to town, or the hero takes a journey. I liked the free indirect voice, the narrator voice that slides over into the psyche of the main character in descriptions. I liked a lot of the examples, most of which I was familiar with. I skipped the Russians and the experimental fiction of the early 20th century such as Ulysses and Virginia Woolf's stuff -------- because sometimes in life you have to make an executive decision not to bother with yucky stuff that's more a puzzle than a good read. Same with his discussion of Portnoy's Complaint: I bought that long ago because the New York Review of Books said to, and halfway through stared at it in dismay and distaste and realized something important: I was out of school, and never never never in my life ever again had to read anything disgusting because some poseur said I had to. (And I never renewed the NY Review of Books, either.) So none of our prof's "must reads" actually are musts, after all, because we are grown up. We can apply his tips to the books we like to read.

Also, I was puzzled at the prof's topic of "metanovels," novels about novels. Good, I thought, because there are a LOT of novels and short stories about writing, or books, or somebody stealing another person's writings, and I like thrillers with that topic. But it turned out to be a lecture on some wildly experimental fiction that sounded to me like "magical realism," that school of writing which bitter British writers say is simply fantasy by writers who happen to live in South America. However, I figure a lit prof is inevitably going to drag in some books nobody actually reads and short the popular ones: it's inevitable. He did NOT drag in Ahab and That Hated Whale, but he did have a good general lecture on descriptions, short or long.

Quick and light lecture series, I recommend it. I'm going to see if he's done any others.

17 people found this helpful

Excellent

Excellent. The best feature is the inclusion of practical games to improve your close reading.

3 people found this helpful

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.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

I originally chose this title to find something to help me fall asleep. I was surprised at how interested I became in the content and I'm a more observant reader for it.

2 people found this helpful

Enriches reading including audiobook reading

I see why the instructors students think so much of him. He provides a sense that he is personally concerned about you and demonstrates his enthusiasm for the subject.

2 people found this helpful

Endurance

The content is good. I don't like the cheap, synthetic applause that opens each lecture. I want to want to listen to this, and as lectures go, it's good. Still, it's a lecture. I could be listening to something more entertaining. If your focus is on writing better, then dive in. And yes, it does help appreciate good writing. But be warned, endurance is required to get through these.

20 people found this helpful

So helpful!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Art of Reading to be better than the print version?

No idea.

What did you like best about this story?

It made me get so much more out of my reading.

What does Professor Timothy Spurgin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He made me feel like I was back in a classroom, which I loved.

8 people found this helpful

The art of MISreading

What disappointed you about The Art of Reading?

I'm not inclined to write reviews. In fact this is my first for Audible. But I was so irritated by Timothy Spurgin's reading, I'm making the effort to warn others. In EVERY lesson he stumbles, typically by reading a word or two ahead then having to correct himself. In some lessons, it happened so frequently, that I found myself waiting for the next stumble and lost track of the content.
You may regard the odd stumble as nitpicking, but there are so many here and they occur with such regularity, that their accumulation is elephantine in size.
Perhaps he had the teleprompter moving too fast, but I'm more inclined to think it is a psychological problem. He may be an outstanding lecturer, but he is most certainly not the right person to deliver an audio presentation like this, and it counts as a big black mark against The Great Courses for enabling him to do so. On this evidence, Great Courses is not an organization who pursues excellence or takes pride in its products.
I would also add that the first 9 lessons or so offer nothing of value for anyone who has taken a high school introductory course in literature or creative writing, or has simply read about either.
I purchased this after reading Building Great Sentences, also in the The Great Courses series. It was full of insights and read impeccably. By contrast, this was a major letdown and if there was a way, I would demand my money back.

30 people found this helpful