How To Read and Why Audiobook By Harold Bloom cover art

How To Read and Why

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection of titles.
Yours as long as you’re a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for $8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

How To Read and Why

By: Harold Bloom
Narrated by: John McDonough
Try Standard free

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.31

Buy for $21.31

"Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom begins this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty years, Bloom has transformed college students into lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for literature. Now, at a time when faster and easier electronic media threatens to eclipse the practice of reading, Bloom draws on his experience as critic, teacher, and prolific reader to plumb the great books for their sustaining wisdom.

Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.

"Bloom is one of the last … of his kind … one of the greatest educators of our time … Wonderful … Bloom writes with passion of those writers whom he loves, and whose work for him affirms life."—John Banville, Irish Times

©2000 Harold Bloom (P)2001 Recorded Books Literary History & Criticism Education
Enriching Content • Insightful Analysis • Wonderful Narration • Transformative Approach • Literary Guidance

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
Harold Bloom's "How to Read and Why" is a passionate argument for the importance of literature and a guide to experiencing its power. Bloom asserts that reading should be a deeply personal and transformative experience, and he outlines how to achieve this.

Interesting and informative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is so very interesting and insightful, showing you the books you read in a much deeper way. I also diacovered several works I am not familiar with, and will now go read those. I took to heart the author's advice and read outloud and started to memorize one of the poems he talked about, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came. I am surprised at discovering how much meaning I previously missed in it!

insightful, immensely interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I took a detour and listened to a couple of the books he mentions and that enriched my learning so deeply.

Not a Boring Lecture

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is great but not for the faint of heart. Harold Bloom is truly an American treasure and this book deserves reading. I doubt the casual reader/listener will enjoy it but as a teacher I loved it.

Nerd alert

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
When the introduction of the book was over and Mr McDonough’s voice began it’s narration, a warm shiver went up my spine. His tone and enunciation is wonderful and, even though I listen at 1.25 speed while reading along, he took a fairly leisurely pace with the book. This is not a bad thing, though, as Harold Bloom, with as much literature he’s read and produced in his lifetime, has an intelligent language that requires a few paragraph or pages to get used to. Sometimes his vocabulary flies over my head.

Bloom’s work is amazing, as usual, and the books and authors he concentrated on were explained with such wonder that they’ve immediately jumped to the top of my list of books, plays, and poetry to hear/read next.

Wonderful Guidance and Excellent Narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews