The Joy of Reading: A Passionate Guide to 189 of the World's Best Authors and Their Works Paperback - 2008

From the jacket flap

iThis book is as contagious as it was intended to be.i
oMortimer J. Adler
Like a professor whose enthusiasm inspires his students, Charles Van Doren
explains whatis wonderful in the classic and contemporary books youive missed, and awakens your desire to reopen the works youive loved. This engaging love letter to reading explores the work of the authors who transformed the world: from Aristotle and Herodotus in ancient Greece to Salinger and Vonnegut in 20th century America.
Divided chronologically by the eras in which these books were written, each work is put in historical context and brought to life by Van Dorenis sometimes surpising and always insightful comments. The Joy of Reading delves into a wide range of genres o fiction, poetry, drama, childrenis books, philosophy, history, and science. Also offered is a unique ten-year reading plan, made up of a grand variety of the worldis greatest books.
Charles Van Doren is the coauthor of the classic How to Read a Book with philosopher Mortimer J. Adler; the author of A History of Knowledge (which sold
30,000 copies in hardcover and 150,000 in paperback); and the author or editor of The Idea of Progress, Great Treasury of Western Thought, The Annals of America, Second Chance: An American Story, as well as several novels for young people and Websteris American biographies.
He is an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut, Torrington Campus. His father was Mark Van Doren, a Pulitzer Prizewinning poet and professor at Columbia.
"

Media reviews

Citations

• Library Journal, 06/15/2008, Page 97
• Reference and Research Bk News, 11/01/2008, Page 292