Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life

"As warm and stimulating as a library to which one returns again and again," the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic discusses the rewards of reading books (Chicago Tribune, Editor's Choice).

Once out of school, most of us read for pleasure. Yet there is another equally important, though often overlooked, reason that we read: to learn how to live. Though books have always been understood as life-teachers, the exact way in which they instruct, cajole, and convince remains a subject of some mystery....