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9781616146566

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From Toni Morrison to Ray Bradbury, Practical Classics is a refreshing and necessary call to reading. A quirky and thoughtful guide, I'd pretty much follow Kevin Smokler anywhere in the library. (And I'm willing to forgive him for what he says about The Scarlet Letter because of his wonderful essay on another beloved book, The Phantom Toll Booth.) He makes it fun, as it should be. <br>- Peter Orner, author of Love and Shame and Love <p> Smokler's book is fascinating, relevant - and has completely wrecked my schedule for the next several months. After reading his sharp insights on all these classics, I feel inspired to read them again. Or for the first time, in some cases . . . in a lot of cases. <br>- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically <p> Whether we're rereading or reading for the first time (go ahead, admit it!), Kevin Smokler's smart, funny, down-to-earth book is a marvelous guide to some of literature's greatest works and their power to instruct. Practical Classics belongs in every reader's library as a reminder to turn off reality television and fill our minds instead with these indelible characters who have so much to teach us. What a gift. <br>- Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion <p> With Practical Classics, Kevin Smokler has done at least four remarkable things at once: he's given curious adult readers a path into the old English-class canon; he's updated that canon with a host of titles that will surprise you; he's wrapped it all up in a crisp, concise, random-access format perfectly suited to the twenty-first century; and, best of all, he's made these fifty books feel fresh and urgent and new again. <br>- Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore <p> Smokler has gone back to your youth so you won't have to - finding delight in rereading old assignments as an adult. An indispensable act of literary kindness. <br>- Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli in the same footsteps.

From Toni Morrison to Ray Bradbury, Practical Classics is a refreshing and necessary call to reading. A quirky and thoughtful guide, I'd pretty much follow Kevin Smokler anywhere in the library. (And I'm willing to forgive him for what he says about The Scarlet Letter because of his wonderful essay on another beloved book, The Phantom Toll Booth.) He makes it fun, as it should be. <br>- Peter Orner, author of Love and Shame and Love <p> Smokler's book is fascinating, relevant - and has completely wrecked my schedule for the next several months. After reading his sharp insights on all these classics, I feel inspired to read them again. Or for the first time, in some cases . . . in a lot of cases. <br>- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically <p> Whether we're rereading or reading for the first time (go ahead, admit it!), Kevin Smokler's smart, funny, down-to-earth book is a marvelous guide to some of literature's greatest works and their power to instruct. Practical Classics belongs in every reader's library as a reminder to turn off reality television and fill our minds instead with these indelible characters who have so much to teach us. What a gift. <br>- Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion <p> With Practical Classics, Kevin Smokler has done at least four remarkable things at once: he's given curious adult readers a path into the old English-class canon; he's updated that canon with a host of titles that will surprise you; he's wrapped it all up in a crisp, concise, random-access format perfectly suited to the twenty-first century; and, best of all, he's made these fifty books feel fresh and urgent and new again. <br>- Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore <p> Smokler has gone back to your youth so you won't have to - finding delight in rereading old assignments as an adult. An indispensable act of literary kindness. <br>- Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Confessions of Max Tivolissionate, and packed wi

In this engaging survey of 50 books commonly assigned to teen readers, [Smokler] advocates revisiting them from an adult perspective. Even books we loved in our formative years... may have sailed right over our heads, suggests the author, who argues that only time and experience can prepare us to appreciate them fully. -San Jose Mercury News [F]ull of wit and candor... Putting literature to practical use is not a new invention, but what's refreshing about the practice in this light is how Smokler pits this sort of practical gifting-as-guidance against the reduction of literature to 'a letter grade and a dusty old obligation.' -Fiction Writers Review [S]o much fun...[It] offers a truly enjoyable trip down one's personal memory lane of books. It's also a love letter to the act of reading, to continual learning, and to making an effort to slow down and savor the good books in life. -The Atlantic Wire YA's for Adults column, with interview If you have been thinking about revisiting the books of your youth or those you have promised yourself to read, but haven't, this entertaining book provides practical, real-world reasons by you should read them. -Bookviews by Alan Caruba [A] fine guide for any adult reader who would return to the classics with a different perspective in mind. -The Bookwatch In the short and beguilingly engaging essays that make up Practical Classics, Smokler shows how these works can be relevant and even useful to grownups. Most impressively, he manages to pull this off without sounding stuffy or self-important. -The Rumpus Possibly the first self-help book to use literature as its prescription, Practical Classics serves as a primer for personal development, demonstrating how one may apply various literary tinctures to the more troublesome areas of the Human Condition.... [Smokler] holds forth with confidence and a good slathering of wit about coping with our common, human plight. -Austin Chronicle

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Kevin Smokler is critically acclaimed writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

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