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Title details for My Reading Life by Pat Conroy - Available

My Reading Life

by Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Bestselling author Pat Conroy acknowledges the books that have shaped him and celebrates the profound effect reading has had on his life.
Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is a voracious reader. Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a life-long companion, reading has been Conroy’s portal to the world, both to the farthest corners of the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any mesmerizing tale of his native South. He has for years kept notebooks in which he records words and expressions, over time creating a vast reservoir of playful turns of phrase, dazzling flashes of description, and snippets of delightful sound, all just for his love of language. But for Conroy reading is not simply a pleasure to be enjoyed in off-hours or a source of inspiration for his own writing. It would hardly be an exaggeration to claim that reading has saved his life, and if not his life then surely his sanity.
 
In My Reading Life, Conroy revisits a life of reading through an array of wonderful and often surprising anecdotes: sharing the pleasures of the local library’s vast cache with his mother when he was a boy, recounting his decades-long relationship with the English teacher who pointed him onto the path of letters, and describing a profoundly influential period he spent  in Paris, as well as reflecting on other pivotal people, places, and experiences. His story is a moving and personal one, girded by wisdom and an undeniable honesty. Anyone who not only enjoys the pleasures of reading but also believes in the power of books to shape a life will find here the greatest defense of that credo.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 2, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780307749239
      • File size: 226929 KB
      • Duration: 07:52:46

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Text Difficulty: 8-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Hearing his first words, listeners will realize why Pat Conroy is the best--possibly the only--narrator for his emotional memoir. He begins with the origins of his lifelong affair with literature--his self-educated mother gave her son a passion for reading and learning. What Conroy and his mother read together would make most avid readers blush in humility. The author is now 66, and his voice has a patina suggested by its seasoned timbre and his soothing reluctance to hurry. Conroy enhances his memoir with a fiction writer's techniques. In his advocacy of fiction, he shares his mother's strong attachment to Margaret Mitchell's GONE WITH THE WIND, a novel that taught him how powerful a fictional work could be when from a master's pen. J.A.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 27, 2010
      The strengths and weakness of Conroy's novels—both his beguiling narrative voice and his often overly emotional language—are present in this slim paean to the books and book people that have shaped his life. Conroy attributes his love of literature to his mother, who nurtured his passion for reading and at the same time educated herself by studying his school books. "I tremble with gratitude as I honor her name," he writes. Conroy's favorite novel was Gone with the Wind, which his mother read to him when he was five years old, and it made a novelist of him, he asserts. Conroy pays tribute to the men who were substitute father figures and mentors, among them a legendary book rep who chastised him for his "overcaffeinated prose." Breakneck contrasts exist throughout: on the one hand, Conroy sketches concisely the venom of Southern white bigotry; on the other hand, he allows humor to bubble up through dialogue, and riffs the English language. While some readers will not progress beyond the fustian prose, Conroy's legion of fans will doubtlessly bond with the author as he earnestly explores the role of books in providing him with inspiration and solace.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Text Difficulty:8-12

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