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The Art of X-Ray Reading

4.42 (109


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.






































 


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.

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.


- Jan

So good I listened again (then bought the book)!

Where does The Art of X-Ray Reading rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

For non-fiction writing books, this is one of the best. It offers analysis and numerous examples (helpful for the books about which I was not familiar), and despite 25 chapters, nothing was repeated. That's why it's worth buying the book and annotating it yourself.


The narrator was fantastic, too.


- David E. Ballard
