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Books that Saved My Life: Reading for Wisdom, Solace and Pleasure

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( 185 ratings, 38 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Books that Saved My Life: Reading for Wisdom, Solace and Pleasure by Michael McGirr is a charming exploration of how literature can profoundly impact our lives. McGirr delves into personal anecdotes, blending wit and insight, to discuss how reading a diverse array of books provides wisdom, comfort, and joy. His reflections are an ode to the transformative power of books, offering a heartfelt and relatable narrative for any book lover seeking deeper connections with the written word.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This engaging exploration of the power of reading might appeal to you if you have ever found wisdom, comfort, or joy in a good book. It offers insightful anecdotes and reflections from the author's life, weaving in an array of literary works that have profoundly impacted him. Whether you seek to deepen your appreciation of literature or find solace in storytelling, this memoir offers a heartfelt homage to the transformative nature of reading.

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A profound, funny and uplifting collection of reminiscences about a life in books, now available in a smaller, competitively priced format.

A profound, funny and uplifting collection of reminiscences about a life in books, now available in a smaller, competitively priced format.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A profound, funny and uplifting collection of reminiscences about a life in books, now available in a smaller, competitively priced format.

Great literature is thrilling. It will feed your hungry mind and take your heart on a journey. It will help you on the wonderful path to one of life's most elusive and hard-won freedoms, freedom from the ego.

Here is a book about the sheer joy of living, exploring forty texts that can enrich us in all manner of ways. Some are recent, such as Harry Potter; some ancient, such as Homer and Lao Tzu. There are memoirs (Nelson Mandela), poetry (Les Murray) and many of the world's great novels, from George Eliot's Middlemarch to Toni Morrison's Beloved. This book uses them to muse upon life in all its glorious complexity.

Our guide, in entertaining short accounts of personal encounters with these works, is Michael McGirr—schoolteacher and father, reviewer of hundreds of books and lifelong lover of literature. His humour and insight shine through in essays that connect the texts he has selected with each other, and connect us to them.

This is the ideal companion for a keen reader—and it may just inspire someone you know to become one, too. Never prescriptive, and often very funny, Books that Saved My Life is an invitation to reflect on the extraordinary gift of reading. 'It is a gift that is taking me a lifetime to unwrap,' McGirr writes. 'The excitement has never worn off.'

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Reviews of Books that Saved My Life by Michael McGirr highlight its deeply fortifying and edifying nature, as McGirr shares personal essays that blend humour, intimate anecdotes, and literary wisdom. The book captures readers’ attention with its diverse range across genres, while McGirr's writing style is praised for its subtlety and modesty, leaving readers with emotions that linger. Readers may find his gratitude infectious, appreciating his honest reflections and the heartfelt connection he shares with the authors featured in his thoughtful essays.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781922268471

Publisher: Text Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 November 2019

Country: Australia

Imprint: The Text Publishing Company

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 22.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 240g

Pages: 320

About the Author

Michael McGirr is the bestselling author of Snooze, Bypass and Things You Get for Free. He has reviewed almost one thousand books, his short fiction has appeared in publications in Australia and overseas, and he has been publisher of Eureka Street and fiction editor of Meanjin. He is a high-school teacher and lives in Melbourne with his wife, Jenny, and their three teenage children.

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