The Joy of Books Hardcover - 1995
by Eric Burns
A passionate attempt to capture for some and rekindle for others the fascination, the exuberance, and the sheer joy of reading, this volume offers humorous and delightful anecdotes as proof that to experience the beauty and power of the written word, one need only open a good book.
From the rear cover
In The Joy of Books, Eric Burns, a passionate lifelong reader, offers us an engaging, informal history of books and reading, beginning with the first clay tablets and continuing on to the latest John Grisham legal thriller. This history, which is humorous in the most surprising places, reveals the power books have always had to delight and entertain, and, more seriously, to enlighten, educate, and "raise possibilities". But the story of reading contains many dark chapters on bookburning and censorship: from Plato's suspicion that books can "tell lies" to the concerted efforts by fundamentalists and others to ban or bowdlerize the classics of world literature. There are other enemies as well: the corrosive effects of "political correctness", the "dumbing down" of education, and the growing indifference to the printed page in a culture overrun by electronic media, in which too many young people proudly wear their aliteracy like a baseball cap turned backward. Are we in danger of becoming merely passive spectators in the marketplace of ideas? Is the special union between readers and authors doomed? Has indifference set in; do separation and divorce seem likely? The Joy of Books is for all who believe otherwise, who will delight in learning of the storms that readers and writers have weathered in the past, and who will take heart in the future from Burns's compelling vision.
Details
- Title The Joy of Books
- Author Eric Burns
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition First Edition
- Pages 218
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY
- Date 1995-09-01
- Illustrated Yes
- Features Illustrated, Index
- ISBN 9781573920049 / 1573920045
- Weight 1.06 lbs (0.48 kg)
- Dimensions 9.36 x 6.24 x 0.9 in (23.77 x 15.85 x 2.29 cm)
- Library of Congress subjects Books and reading - United States, Burns, Eric - Books and reading
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 95021306
- Dewey Decimal Code 028.9
Media reviews
Citations
- Kirkus Reviews, 07/15/1995, Page 991
- Publishers Weekly, 07/17/1995, Page 210
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