Product Description

"Perfect for all of us who can never get enough time with good books. It not only urges us to indulge deeply and often, it shows us how."-Myra Hart, professor, Harvard Business School

"Readers and want-to-be readers will be encouraged by the advice to read more, more widely and more systematically."-Michael Keller, university librarian, Stanford University

"An ideal gift for both sporadic and relentless readers."-James Mustich Jr., publisher of A Common Reader

"A worthy addition to even the most well-stocked personal library."-Ross King, author of Michelangelo & The Pope's Ceiling

Do not set out to live a well-read life but rather your well-read life. No one can be well-read using someone else's reading list. Unless a book is good for you, you won't connect with it and gain from it. Just as no one can tell you how to lead your life, no one can tell you what to read for your life.

How do readers find more time to read? In The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life, Steve Leveen offers both inspiration and practical advice for bibliophiles on how to get more books in their life and more life from their books.

His recommendations are disarmingly refreshing, as when he advises when not to read a book and why not to feel guilty if you missed reading all those classics in school. He helps readers reorganize their bookshelves into a Library of Candidates that they actively build and a Living Library of books read with enthusiasm, and he emphasizes the value of creating a Bookography, or annotated list of your reading life. Separate chapters are devoted to the power of audio books and the merits of reading groups.

The author himself admits he came "late to the bookshelf," making this charming little guide all the more convincing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #222843 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781929154173
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Some people need self-help books on relationships, others need them for work. Leveen's self-help book is for the person who needs help in becoming a reader, whose spirit is willing but whose flesh is weak. In a gentle, coaxing style, Leveen offers standard self-help advice: he counsels moderation. You don't need to be a marathon reader to be well-read—no one can read everything; and you're okay—even if a so-called classic doesn't appeal to you. Call books beckoning to you "candidates for your attention," rather than the more obligatory-sounding "reading list." Leveen is against ad hoc reading decisions and in favor of lists—which will seem too bad to readers who know the joys of serendipity. He is an advocate of audiobooks, especially unabridged editions, and devotes an entire chapter to "Reading with Your Ears." In the end, there's probably nothing like reading a great book to make someone love reading—but perhaps Leveen's gentle encouragement can help. (May 2)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
A pleasant and mindful celebration of the art of reading that many will appreciate...recommended for all public libraries. -- Library Journal March 15, 2005

A practical handbook...distilled into easy-to-digest prose. -- The New York Times Book Review, July 10, 2005

All most people need to get started on what can be the truly mind-altering experience of reading. -- thecelebritycafe.com October 14, 2005

For the person who needs help in becoming a reader, whose spirit is willing but whose flesh is weak. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY – February 28, 2005

How to read more and like it? Steve Leveen's delivery of the gourmet fast food of reading. -- Christian Science Monitor, May 3, 2005

Just what the book lover with too little time needs to put his or her reading house in order. -- Friends of Libraries USA Vol. 28, Issue 1 February 2005

Leveen proposes a strategy for falling, and staying, in "book love." There's no daunting recommended reading in Leveen's "Little Guide." -- The Boston Globe, June 4, 2005

The Little Guide may just inspire you to dust off the tomes on your own shelf. -- U.S. Airways Attache Magazine September 2005

From the Publisher
Despite years of selling "tools for serious readers," Steve Leveen counts himself among the many frustrated bibliophiles in search of more time to read.

In The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life, he shares some of the most rewarding methods he’s found for getting more books into your life and more life from your books.

Spend just three hours with this Little Guide and add years of fulfillment to your reading life.

You’ll discover:
• How to read 12 more books a year even if you have no more time to read
• Why part of your personal library should be empty and a large part filled with books you want to read
• How to get a reading on a book before you read it
• When to give up on a book (even if it’s a classic)
• How to create an annotated reading biography

Both practical and uplifting, The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life shows you how to transform a pastime into a lifelong passion that gets stronger with every book you absorb.

Customer Reviews

How to Make Books a Part of Your Life
If you are a booklover or have a special booklover in your life, this is the book for you. It is a breezy and charming guide to making books a part of your life, and getting more out of the ones that you read. Included in the advice is how to create a "Book of Candidates" - a list of books you want to read and how to keep a Bookography - a list of books you have read which becomes a sort of diary of your reading life. Another suggestion is creating a shelf of books called "For When I Go There" - books about special places you want to visit, saved to be read when you are finally there. The atmosphere of reading a novel about Venice for example is greatly enhanced when reading it sipping a cappuccino at a cafe overlooking the Grand Canal. I know, I've done it, savoring both the book and the place.

Leveen also tells us how to get more out of the books we do read. He promotes engaged active reading by feeling free to write our thoughts and comments in the margins of books (he calls this being a a Footprint Leaver vs. being a Preservationist, a person who believes in leaving a book in a pristine condition). He advises not rushing to put a completed book back on our shelves the minute we have finished reading it. Instead he tells us to review it a day, a week, a month after reading it in order to aid in the retention of the book's contents. There is also advice on audio books and joining bookclubs. In the end he quotes Anatole Broyard, "A good book is never exhausted, it goes on whispering to you from the wall". This would make a perfect gift for a booklover you know.

Fluffy fluff fluff.
This book can be very briefly summarized:

1. Write notes in your books

2. Listen to audiobooks.

3. Join a book club.

Really, that's about all there is content-wise in this book. I am amazed at the high ratings it has received from other reviewers, but I suspect they know that the book is short on useful advice, as they use terms like "breezy" and state that the book provides "gentle encouragement".

Save your money for more worthwhile books. If you want to learn the mechanics of effective reading, there really is no substitute for Van Doren and Adler's "How to Read a Book". Some think it's too technical, but hey, active reading isn't easy!

If you are looking for advice on which books to read, try "For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most" by Schwartz, "So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading" by Nelson, or the timeless "The New Lifetime Reading Plan : The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded" by Fadiman.

In the end, life is too short to waste time on mediocre books - so pass this one up.

Candy for a reader
How can any reader not love a book that starts out with the quote from Gustave Flaubert, "Read in order to Live"? Steve Leveen, CEO of Levenger, has written a thought-provoking book for readers, The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life. There are ideas for finding more time in your life to read, such as listening to audio books. He suggests methods to make your reading more meaningful, such as making a List of Candidates, books you want to read. (The bibliography alone is a great starting place!) There are suggestions for building a library, and ways to share books. And, as a librarian, I appreciate a book that says, "Like our national parks, our public libraries constitute a treasure that many Americans take advantage of hardly at all."

The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life is like candy for a reader; sweet, enticing, and it leaves you craving more.