The Year of Reading Dangerously
How Fifty Great Books Saved My Life
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
A working father whose life no longer feels like his own discovers the transforming powers of great (and downright terrible) literature in this laugh-out-loud memoir.
Andy Miller had a job he quite liked, a family he loved and no time at all for reading. Or so he kept telling himself. But, no matter how busy or tired he was, something kept niggling at him. Books. Books he’d always wanted to read. Books he’d said he’d read, when he hadn’t. Books that whispered the promise of escape from the 6.44 to London. And so, with the turn of a page, began a year of reading that was to transform Andy’s life completely.
This book is Andy’s inspirational and very funny account of his expedition through literature: classic, cult and everything in-between. Crack the spine of your unread ‘Middlemarch’, discover what ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Moby-Dick’ have in common (everything, surprisingly) and knock yourself out with a new-found enthusiasm for Tolstoy, Douglas Adams and ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’. ‘The Year of Reading Dangerously’ is a reader’s odyssey and it begins with opening this book…
Reviews
‘Like nothing else I have ever read – a combination of criticism and memoir that is astute, tender, funny and often wickedly ironic’ Peter Conrad, Observer
‘Very funny … this is “High Fidelity” for bookworms’ Christian House, Daily Telegraph
‘Brilliant. All these books should count themselves lucky to have been read by Andy Miller’ Stewart Lee
‘A readable, often funny account … This is much more than a succession of verdicts on famous books. It’s also an autobiography told through books … reminiscent both in style and perceptiveness of Nick Hornby. Miller’s theme is that books aren’t separate from life … Perhaps one book never changed anyone’s life; but 50 of them can.’ Brandon Robshaw, Independent
‘Hilarious and touching … If you don’t like to read, this book is probably not for you, but Dan Brown remains on sale’ Jenny Colgan, author of ‘Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams’
‘I loved this book … challenging, controversial and very funny’ David Nobbs, author of ‘The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin’
‘Andy Miller is a very funny writer. And this hymn to reading is a delight. The chapter on Herman Melville and Dan Brown had me howling with pleasure. PS. It will also make you feel a bit well-read’ Matt Haig, author of ‘The Humans’
‘Brilliant’ Lucy Mangan, author of ‘My Family and Other Disasters’
‘Andy Miller was leading a normal life of quiet desperation when he discovered that he was no longer reading with any plan or pleasure. Usually books about books as therapy are resistible but “The Year of Reading Dangerously” is a sweet exception. Amiable, circumstantial, amusing, charming’ The Times
‘A witty self-help guide to managing one’s bookshelves’ TLS
‘Like Bill Bryson being locked in the British Library for his own good, “The Year of Reading Dangerously” is clever, inspiring and – shh! – laugh-out-loud funny’ Neil Perryman, author of ‘Adventures with the Wife in Space’
‘By turns witty and profound’ Daily Telegraph
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In his fanciful, endearing account of his experiences tackling classic works of fiction, Miller (Tilting at Windmills: How I Tried to Stop Worrying and Love Sport) conveys his love of reading, though the book is light on literary criticism. At age 40, Miller is married, with a young child, a boring job as an editor, and a deeply stultifying daily routine; he takes his cue for this project from another Miller's work, written 50 years ago Henry Miller's The Books in My Life, in which the author explores his life through an account of the books that influenced him. Here, Miller sets for himself an ambitious reading regimen 50 pages per day and begins with Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, which he found inscrutable but enchanting. He plows through works such as George Eliot's Middlemarch and Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage, which he had previously began reading but didn't finish (he doesn't find them much easier to get through the second time around). Both of these made their way onto his "List of Betterment," along with Robert Tressell's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Colin MacInnes's Absolute Beginners ("It spoke to me when I was 16"), musician Julian Cope's Krautrocksampler, and others. There is plenty of hilarity in Miller's intimate literary memoir, including an idiosyncratic comparison between Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.
