{"product_id":"why-read-paperback","title":"Why Read (Paperback)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the Booker-shortlisted author of \u003ci\u003eUmbrella\u003c\/i\u003e, a world-girdling collection of writings inspired by a life lived in and for literature\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom one of the most unusual and distinctive writers working today, dubbed \"the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation\" by the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, Will Self's \u003ci\u003eWhy Read \u003c\/i\u003eis a cornucopia of thoughtful and brilliantly witty essays on writing and literature.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelf takes us with him: from the foibles of his typewriter repairman to the irradiated exclusion zone of Chernobyl, to the Australian outback, and to literary forms past and future. With his characteristic intellectual brio, Self aims his inimitable eye at titans of literature like Woolf, Kafka, Orwell, and Conrad. He writes movingly on W.G. Sebald's childhood in Germany and provocatively describes the elevation of William S. Burroughs's \u003ci\u003eJunky\u003c\/i\u003e from shocking pulp novel to beloved cult classic. Self also expands on his regular column in \u003ci\u003eLiterary Hub \u003c\/i\u003eto ask readers, how, what, and ultimately why we should read in an ever-changing world. Whether he is writing on the rise of the bookshelf as an item of furniture in the nineteenth century or on the impossibility of Googling his own name in a world lived online, Self's trademark intoxicating prose and mordant, energetic humor infuse every piece.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA book that examines how the human stream of consciousness flows into and out of literature, \u003ci\u003e Why Read\u003c\/i\u003e will satisfy both old and new readers of this icon of contemporary literature.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Self, Will","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52337217896722,"sku":"9780802162649","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0270\/9238\/5846\/files\/16267823482473.jpg?v=1780436460","url":"https:\/\/hbswarehousesale.com\/products\/why-read-paperback","provider":"Harvard Book Store Warehouse Sale","version":"1.0","type":"link"}