3.0
Where I'm Reading From
ByPublisher Description
Why do we need fiction? Why do books need to be printed on paper, copyrighted, read to the finish? Do we read to challenge our vision of the world or to confirm it? Has novel writing turned into a job like any other? In Where I’m Reading From, the novelist and critic Tim Parks ranges over decades of critical reading—from Leopardi, Dickens, and Chekhov, to Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, and Thomas Bernhard, and on to contemporary work by Peter Stamm, Alice Munro, and many others—to upend our assumptions about literature and its purpose.
In thirty-seven interlocking essays, Where I’m Reading From examines the rise of the “international” novel and the disappearance of “national” literary styles; how market forces shape “serious” fiction; the unintended effects of translation; the growing stasis of literary criticism; and the problematic relationship between writers’ lives and their work. Through dazzling close readings and probing self-examination, Parks wonders whether writers—and readers—can escape the twin pressures of the new global system and the novel that has become its emblematic genre.
In thirty-seven interlocking essays, Where I’m Reading From examines the rise of the “international” novel and the disappearance of “national” literary styles; how market forces shape “serious” fiction; the unintended effects of translation; the growing stasis of literary criticism; and the problematic relationship between writers’ lives and their work. Through dazzling close readings and probing self-examination, Parks wonders whether writers—and readers—can escape the twin pressures of the new global system and the novel that has become its emblematic genre.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesWhere I'm Reading From Reviews
3.0
“My favorite sentiment from this book: he talks about how “literature is actually experienced and how it can indeed act positively in our lives, without playing out great moral dramas or drawing us toward weighty options” … i love this because sometimes novels are written to simply be enjoyed by the reader, telling a story that is important to some people but not to everyone :) i also learned a lot about the complex world of literature translation”
“And once again: this book is fucking GRAND. It helped me develope my opinions on literature, the Nobel prize in literature, ebooks and far more. I think the way Tim Parks introduces questions such as “why are we reading” - is it just because it gets us to feel an intellectual power and superiority - and “why do we write” which is a topic with incredibly many layers, is simply intriguing!!”About Tim Parks
Tim Parks has written seventeen novels, including Europa, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and most recently, Painting Death. He is the author of several works of non-fiction, including Italian Neighbors and Italian Ways. Parks has also translated the works of Alberto Moravia, Giacomo Leopardi, and Niccolò Machiavelli, among others, and he is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. He lives in Italy.
Other books by Tim Parks
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