Why I Read

“A delectably sophisticated inquiry into why reading is a constant source of pleasure and provocation.” —Booklist

“Reading Why I Read delivers all the pleasure of discussing one’s favorite books with a marvelously articulate, intelligent, opinionated friend. It’s like joining the book club of your dreams.” —Francine Prose

“Wendy Lesser’s extraordinary alertness, intelligence, and curiosity have made her one of America’s most significant cultural critics,” writes Stephen Greenblatt. In Why I Read, Lesser draws on a lifetime of pleasure reading and decades of editing to describe a life lived in and through literature. As she examines work from such perspectives as “Character and Plot,” “Novelty,” “Grandeur and Intimacy,” and “Authority,” the reader will discover a definition of literature that is as broad as it is broad-minded. In addition to novels and stories, Lesser explores plays, poems, and essays, along with mysteries, science fiction, and memoirs. Her passion for reading is infectious—and it resonates on every page. Iconoclastic, conversational, and full of insight, Why I Read will delight avid readers as well as neophytes in search of sheer literary fun.

“Everywhere in Why I Read lie ribbons of literary wisdom. . . . Lesser argues for the Great Books in words that might be engraved in granite.” —William Giraldi, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“She offers insights into George Orwell and Henning Mankell, Emily Dickinson and Roberto Bolaño, J.R. Ackerley and Shakespeare, Henry James and Isaac Asimov—to name but a few. . . . The effect is rather as if Lesser were writing to a friend about the most fabulous literary party of all time, where she’d been in conversation not with authors but with their works.” —Claire Messud, Bookforum