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The Art of X-Ray Reading
- How the Secrets of 25 Great Works of Literature Will Improve Your Writing
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
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Publisher's summary
Roy Peter Clark, one of America's most influential writing teachers, offers writing lessons we can draw from 25 great texts.
Where do writers learn their best moves? They use a technique that Roy Peter Clark calls X-ray reading, a form of reading that lets you penetrate beyond the surface of a text to see how meaning is actually being made.
In The Art of X-Ray Reading, Clark invites you to don your X-ray reading glasses and join him on a guided tour through some of the most exquisite and masterful literary works of all time, from The Great Gatsby to Lolita to The Bluest Eye and many more. Along the way, he shows you how to mine these masterpieces for invaluable writing strategies that you can add to your arsenal and apply in your own writing. Once you've experienced X-ray reading, your writing will never be the same again.
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Miller, through Keats’s poetry, brilliantly resurrects and brings vividly to life, the man, the poet in all his complexity and spirit, living dangerously, disdaining respectability and cultural norms, and embracing subversive politics. Keats was a lower-middle-class outsider from a tragic and fractured family, whose extraordinary energy and love of language allowed him to pummel his way into the heart of English literature; a freethinker and a liberal at a time of repression, who delighted in the sensation of the moment.
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A Romantic Life
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By: Lucasta Miller
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The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis
- How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind
- By: Jason M Baxter
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
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C. S. Lewis had one of the great minds of the 20th century. Many know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Others know him for his books in apologetics, including Mere Christianity and The Problem of Pain. But few know him for his scholarly work as a professor of medieval and Renaissance literature. What shaped the mind of this great thinker?
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Excellent
- By andrew wilson smith on 03-08-22
By: Jason M Baxter
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So We Read On
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- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
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Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
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Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
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Six Memos for the Next Millennium
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At the time of his death, Italo Calvino was at work on six lectures setting forth the qualities in writing he most valued and which he believed would define literature in the century to come. Here, in Six Memos for the Next Millennium, are the five lectures he completed, forming not only a stirring defense of literature but also an indispensable guide to the writings of Calvino himself. He devotes one "memo" each to the concepts of lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, and multiplicity.
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Spring and All: Facsimile Edition
- New Directions Pearls
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A beautiful facsimile of the 1923 original edition which is considered "one of the greatest poems of the twentieth century" by The New York Times. Spring and All is a manifesto of the imagination - a hybrid of alternating sections of prose and free verse that coalesce in dramatic, energetic, and beautifully cryptic statements of how language re-creates the world. Spring and All contains some of Williams' best-known poetry.
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Classic!
- By Amazon Customer on 01-25-18
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The Enchanted Hour
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A Wall Street Journal writer’s conversation-changing look at how reading aloud makes adults and children smarter, happier, healthier, more successful, and more closely attached, even as technology pulls in the other direction.
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advice to take to heart
- By Brian on 04-30-20
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The Grammar of God
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In this eye-opening chronicle, Kushner tells the story of her vibrant relationship to the Bible and along the way illustrates how the differences in translation affect our understanding of our culture's most important written work.
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a sobering read
- By Amazon Customer on 03-28-17
By: Aviya Kushner
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The Art of Fiction
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Ayn Rand discusses how a writer combines abstract ideas with concrete action and description to achieve a unity of theme, plot, characterization, and style, the four essential elements of fiction. Here, too, are Rand's illuminating analyses of passages from famous writers, rewrites of scenes from her own works, and fascinating rules for building dramatic plots and characters with depth.
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Get Stein on Writing
- By Lois on 12-04-09
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The Elements of Eloquence
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In his inimitably entertaining and wonderfully witty style, he takes apart famous phrases and shows how you too can write like Shakespeare or quip like Oscar Wilde. Whether you’re aiming to achieve literary immortality or just hoping to deliver the perfect one-liner, The Elements of Eloquence proves that you don’t need to have anything important to say - you simply need to say it well.
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Who knew rhetoric could be so much fun?
- By Philo on 10-30-14
By: Mark Forsyth
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What listeners say about The Art of X-Ray Reading
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dan Janal
- 06-24-18
I’ve listened to several writing/reading courses...
This was the best.
Clear. Concise. Great examples.
Dan Janal
Author, “Write Your Book in a Flash”
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- Dub
- 04-25-17
English Teacher's Friend
Great way to look at texts. I'll be passing some tips on to my students.
Easy to listen to, as well.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Emily Rose
- 05-16-17
Inspired
I rented X Ray from the library and followed along with it. This book is one to be studied and respected, as it provides all the tools you need to write something great!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Marie Hayes
- 08-12-22
10/10 would reccomend
orderly, wonderful examples, exaplained in a way that works well with an audio book: often it goes in one ear and out the other, but the structure makes it easier to retain a lot of the material and analysis. the narrator did a great job!
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- Nicolette Bundy
- 04-25-16
surprisingly fun and informative
What did you love best about The Art of X-Ray Reading?
The excerpts from books I haven't read that are now on my reading list- Clark brought many great passages to my attention! I also did learn to pay closer attention to certain details of good prose as promised by the book. I will give myself permission to slow down and savor good sentences a bit more. Sometimes it seems like good writing and attention to style is overlooked these days and Clark offers a remedy to this.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Art of X-Ray Reading?
The chapter in which the author treats Rachel Carson's 'The Sea Around Us.' Gorgeous excerpts, fascinating analysis.
Have you listened to any of Jefferson Mays’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
The narrator did a great job. The reading is faithful to the erudite yet fun tone of the book and keeps the listener engaged with a warm, lively tone and energy.
My only quibble is that sometimes the reading is a touch too fast- the format of the book is spaced out with lots of excerpts, lists, and new paragraph headings, but without more of a pause between them it isn't always immediately clear in whose voice the narrator is reading- whether it be the author's or a character or author ffrom a referenced book.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Tom Dolan
- 06-08-16
SUPERB NARRATION SHOWS HOW GREAT WORKS WORK.
What made the experience of listening to The Art of X-Ray Reading the most enjoyable?
NARRATOR JEFFERSON MAYS SPOKE THE WORDS AS IF HE HAD FELT, THOUGHT, AND WRITTEN THEM HIMSELF. AND WHAT WORDS THEY WERE! INTELLECTUALLY INCISIVE. EMOTIONALLY MOVING. TRUE TO LIFE. NEVER A DULL. GAVE ME A DEEPER APPRECIATION OF LITERATURE -- BY MEANS AND METHODS OF "X-RAY READING."
Who was your favorite character and why?
"KING LEAR" AND "THE GRAPES OF WRATH" WERE FINALLY BROUGHT HOME TO ME AS NEVER BEFORE. OPENED MY EYES, MY MIND, MY HEART.
What does Jefferson Mays bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
LIFE.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
YES. AND I DID SO BY SKIPPING TO THE BOOKS I WAS INTERESTED IN. VERY EASY TO SIFT BACK AND FORTH. KINDA LIKE PANNING FOR GOLD AND FINDING NUGGETS APLENTY.
Any additional comments?
DID I FORGET TO MENTION THE AUTHOR, ROY PETER CLARK? I DID?? GOSH. SORRY. BUT I KNOW MR. CLARK WILL UNDERSTAND. HE IS HUMANE. MR. CLARK WON ME OVER IMMEDIATELY WHEN HE DEDICATED HIS BOOK TO HIS TWO BROTHERS WHO ARE CARING FOR HIS 95-YEAR-OLD MOM. BOOKS ARE GREAT. GOTTA HAVE 'EM. BUT MOM IS SINA QUA NON.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Karen Reeves
- 03-18-17
Fantastic!
A wealth of information and insight. Interesting, and told with a little humor thrown in. Easy to listen to. Fabulous narration. It made me purchase many of the works he analyzes so I can delve deeper.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Learetta
- 01-03-23
A peek inside
So much so engaging - the narrator could have been more engaging and less methodical and clinical
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- Jan
- 04-25-16
So Good I Bought the Print Version
Would you consider the audio edition of The Art of X-Ray Reading to be better than the print version?
I will soon know the answer to this question. I enjoyed the Audible version so much I decided to buy a print version in order to underline and notate key parts.
What other book might you compare The Art of X-Ray Reading to and why?
Eats, Shoots and Leaves although this book is much better than that one.
Which character – as performed by Jefferson Mays – was your favorite?
There are no real characters in this book unless you consider the books chosen to be examined. In that case, my favorite part was the section on Flannery O'Connor, a wonderful short story writer. After hearing that section I was even more impressed by O'Connor's skill.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
This is a very entertaining book even though it is actually a book about reading in order to improve your writing. Great writing coupled with an excellent narrator have made this a most entertaining book. I appreciate favorite authors even more than before as the nuances of their skill is uncovered.
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28 people found this helpful
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- Danie Bester
- 03-28-19
Entertainin and INsightful
I usually dread the slow traffic around Johannesburg, but I look forward to my daily trips so that I can finish the audio-book. I strongly recommend it for entertainment value and insightful content. Full marks!
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