{"product_id":"why-read-by-will-self-9781611854213","title":"Why Read","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWill Self\u003c\/em\u003e may not be the last modernist at work but at the moment he's the most fascinating of the tradition's torch bearers. \u003cem\u003eNew York\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom one of the most unusual and distinctive writers working today, dubbed 'the most daring and delightful novelist of his generation' by the \u003cem\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e, Will Self's \u003cem\u003eWhy Read\u003c\/em\u003e is a cornucopia of thoughtful and brilliantly witty essays on writing and literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSelf takes us with him: from the foibles of his typewriter repairman to the irradiated exclusion zone of Chernobyl, to the Australian outback and to literary forms past and future. With his characteristic intellectual brio, Self aims his inimitable eye at titans of literature like Woolf, Kafka, Orwell and Conrad. He writes movingly on W.G. Sebald's childhood in Germany and provocatively describes the elevation of William S. Burroughs's \u003cem\u003eJunky\u003c\/em\u003e from shocking pulp novel to beloved cult classic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSelf also expands on his regular column in \u003cem\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/em\u003e to ask readers how, what and ultimately why we should read in an ever-changing world. Whether he is writing on the rise of the bookshelf as an item of furniture in the nineteenth century or on the impossibility of Googling his own name in a world lived online, Self's trademark intoxicating prose and mordant, energetic humour infuse every piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47603361808620,"sku":"9781611854213","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781611854213-why-read.jpg?v=1778061138","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/why-read-by-will-self-9781611854213","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}