A San Francisco Chronicle and Kirkus Best Book of the YearA gorgeously unique; fully illustrated exploration into the phenomenology of readingmdash;how we visualize images from reading works of literature; from one of our very best book jacket designers; himself a passionate reader. What do we see when we read? Did Tolstoy really describe Anna Karenina? Did Melville ever really tell us what; exactly; Ishmael looked like? The collection of fragmented images on a pagemdash;a graceful ear there; a stray curl; a hat positioned just somdash;and other clues and signifiers helps us to create an image of a character. But in fact our sense that we know a character intimately has little to do with our ability to concretely picture our belovedmdash;or reviledmdash;literary figures. In this remarkable work of nonfiction; Knopfs Associate Art Director Peter Mendelsund combines his profession; as an award-winning designer; his first career; as a classically trained pianist; and his first love; literaturemdash;he considers himself first and foremost as a readermdash;into what is sure to be one of the most provocative and unusual investigations into how we understand the act of reading.From the Trade Paperback edition.
#1048251 in eBooks 2012-04-01 2012-04-01File Name: B00IGDXOPG
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. This is an excellent ebook for kidsBy rkreviewerThis is an excellent ebook for kids! As a teacher of elementary students; I would love to incorporate this ebook into a small group activity where I present a main idea or topic to the whole class and then they break up in small groups and discover more material on their own. My mind was continuously racing as I read through this book thinking of different projects I could make on this topic. It is the perfect age group to let them use a kindle to explore and what a better way to do so than with this ebook! I will totally let other teachers know of this opportunity and will keep this seller in mind with other ebooks available. I received this product free for reviewing purposes; however my opinions are all my own.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. What a rip-off!By H. MinutaglioI feel completely ripped off by this book. It reads like somebody copied pasted a dictionary definitions of various various water formations without trying to make it at a level for "early learners" like the title suggests. Then they stuck it next to clip art photos. Does this sound like its for "early learners"? "An ocean is a body of saline water that composes much of a planets hydrosphere." Or this gem: "a marsh is a type of wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species." Ive included my favorite photo of the "swamp" and "lake." Dont waste your money.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Very short and ends as if something is missing - overall nicely made (but could be better).By mamyvicI have been looking for some books to read to my kids and stumbled upon this series. The first one I read was "Types of Air Around Us"; which was quite disappointing. If I have to compare this book to the "Air" book (and I can compare because as part of a series they should all be similar); this is actually better.But it is not similar; it is quite different. A different set up and style: it has a different font choice (but luckily much nicer!) and much much better images! That said; I like its format: it introduces the children to seven different types of water.- OCEAN- MARSH- LAKE- RIVER- WATERFALL- POND- SWAMPEach word has a brief explanation next to it; and the following page contains two images asking the child which is the correct one. The idea is very nice. Unfortunately it is not interactive (of course); so on the kindle the child can only point at the correct picture. The same page would though be more intriguing in the paperback version; because children could actually cross the right answer with a pen or pencil.Overall this book is nicely made; but it is very short and after "swamp" the book drastically finishes with a blank white page. This is strange and not nice; it feels as if something is missing.I actually believe that it should be FREE for Kindle. I am not saying that it is not worth $0.99; but there are so many books for Kindle which are actually more elaborated and are still free; therefore this one should be too. AND; if the kindle version corresponds exactly to the paperback version; than the paperback version is definitely overpriced at $9.42 for how small this book actually is.
