The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life
by Steve Leveen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steve LeveenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04-01
ISBN: 1929154178
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: Levenger Press
Book Reviews of The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life
Book Review: Some useful ideas but not battle tested
Summary: 4 Stars
Years ago I purchased one of Levenger's book lights based on glowing ads in "The New York Times." Steve Leveen's marketing prose described how it would make it possible to read in bed, and the picture of a reader sitting up in bed reading was very compelling. In practice the light worked all right if I sat up in bed (but then why not sit in a chair) and not at all if I lay on my stomach or on my side or peering over the side of the bed, all as I normally do while reading in bad. I soon gave up on Levenger's light, and now wear one of those lights that fit around your head and light up whatever you are looking at.
This book is similar: some really good ideas that Steve admits he hasn't really tested in practice but has gleaned from customers and famous people he has dealt with. He admits to reading very few books over the years, but meaning to do so in the future.
Four basic ideas capture his fancy: marking up books as you read (although half his sources are opposed to doing so); joining a reading group (which he hasn't done himself, The Reading Group Handbook by Rachel W. Jacobsohn is a good practical guide); listening to books; and making lists of books to read and writing reports of books as you read them and later to improve comprehension.
His Little Guide is printed on a heavy matte stock, almost impossible to make notes on without smearing, and although the reading group idea has merit for some people, Steve admits he has no direct knowledge himself. Multitasking while listening to books may save time but most people can read much faster than readers can read books aloud.
The resources here on Amazon can be used to implement his fourth suggestion, one that has great merit in my experience.
1. Use your Wishlists to list books you may want to read in the future (you don't actually have to buy them here); you can enter the source of the suggestion in the Comment box together with other notes about why you may want to read it.
2. Create a ListMania! List of books you are reading, putting notes in either in the box after the title of the book or in the Introduction to the List.
3. Pretty up your notes and publish a Review of the book (delete your notes from the List when you do so). Add additional information in the first Comment for suggestions for further reading, interesting articles on the author or the subject and so on.
4. Email a copy of the Review and to yourself; that way you will have a backup copy and you can work on your reading notes and Reviews whether you are at home or on the road using a public computer.
5. Consider posting your perfected reviews on other websites; Google Books is an excellent repository with -- so far -- relatively few personal reviews.
6. Participate in any discussions of your Review in the Comments.
7. Keep a copy of all of your reviews in a text file of some sort; I've got several thousand book reports and reviews in a Word file covering books I've read over the past 50 years. It's great fun to spend time just searching through the file to find connections between books and authors or simply to see how my interests and tastes have changed over the years. [Back up that file!]
I'm not entirely negative on the ideas in Leveen's book; many of them seem to have merit, although Leveen hasn't tested many of them in practice. Consider reading some of the books on how to read effectively written by people who have actually read many books. Examples I've enjoyed and learned from include:
How to Read a Book (A Touchstone book) by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren.
The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded by Clifton Fadiman.
How Fiction Works by James Wood.
How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom.
Skim Leveen's book for ideas and suggestions, and apply those that appeal to you. Most of them come from people who really applied them in practice and found them helpful. Leveen admits that he hasn't actually tested very many of them himself.
Robert C. Ross 2008
Summary of The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life
"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.
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