Books › How to read and why › Books like it
If you loved
Books like How to read and why
An impassioned, erudite invitation to treat the reading of great literature as a profound act of self-discovery. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with How to read and why.
- contemplative
- reverent
- intellectual
- introspective
- 01
The pleasures of reading in an age of distraction
Alan Jacobs
A playfully irreverent and deeply encouraging guide that grants you permission to read whatever brings you joy, entirely without shame.
- 02
The Western canon
Harold Bloom
A fierce, erudite love letter to the towering geniuses of literature and a passionate defense of reading for aesthetic pleasure alone.
- 03
Reading Like a Writer
Francine Prose
An invitation to slow down, pull up a chair, and marvel at the architecture of a perfectly crafted sentence.
- 04
The anxiety of influence
Harold Bloom
An insightful, deeply personal exploration of how artists wrestle with the inescapable shadows of their literary ancestors.
- 05
A history of literary criticism
Harry Blamires · 1991
A steady, illuminating journey through centuries of intellectual debate about the meaning and purpose of literature.
- 06
Literary theory
Terry Eagleton
An engaging, unpretentious journey through the major movements of contemporary literary thought.
- 07
Literary Criticism
Charles E. Bressler · 1994
A clear, structured map through the dense and fascinating wilderness of literary theory.
- 08
Anatomy of criticism
Northrop Frye · 1957
A magisterial and visionary exploration of how literature shapes our ideals and builds the society we want to live in.
- 09
Playing in the dark
Toni Morrison
A brilliant, paradigm-shifting lens that permanently alters how you read the American literary canon.
- 10
The art of literary research
Richard Daniel Altick
A methodical and thoughtful exploration of the evolving landscape of literary scholarship and research.
- 11
How fiction works
James Wood · 2009
An illuminating masterclass that permanently alters the way you experience the architecture of a sentence.
- 12
Lectures on Literature. Austen, Dickens, Flaubert, Stevenson, Proust, Kafka, Joyce
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
An authoritative, scholarly exploration of the craft of fiction through the lens of classic 19th and 20th-century literature.
