{"product_id":"9781555974640","title":"Reading Life: Books for the Ages","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA new, compelling collection of essays by Sven Birkerts, \"one of America's most distinguished, eloquent servants of the poetry and fiction that matter\" (Susan Sontag)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eReading, the mind's traffic in signs and signifiers, is the most dynamic, changeful, and possibly transformational act we can imagine. To have read a work and have been strongly affected by it—and then to come back to it after many years—can be a foundation-shaking enterprise.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eReading Life\u003c\/i\u003e, virtuoso critic and essayist Sven Birkerts examines what it means to return to resonant works of fiction—the books one thinks of \"covetously, as private properties,\" the \"personal signposts\" of one's inner life. For Birkerts, these include \u003ci\u003eThe Catcher in the Rye\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHumboldt's Gift\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTo the Lighthouse\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eLolita\u003c\/i\u003e. In twelve far-reaching and intimate essays, Birkerts reflects upon his first readings and what later encounters reveal about time, memory, and the murmuring transistors of selfhood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Graywolf Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47054936735984,"sku":"9781555974640","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781555974640_p0.jpg?v=1763785222","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781555974640","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}