The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books

by Steve Leveen

Book Overview

For those coming late to the bookshelf comes practical advice on how to getmore books in your life and more life from your books. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1929154178
• ISBN13: 9781929154173
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Levenger Press
• Length: 123 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

THE Book for Readers "Who Want More...."

I finished this concise and thoughtful reading experience and wondered, "why hasn't this approach been chronicled before?" We all complain about too little time, too much to do, not enough hours in the day to read that special book, etc., but no one has ever REALLY attacked the problem with a plan - that is, until now! Wow, and has Steve Leveen ever done it!! It's all here, and the best part is, it doesn't take you long to get through his book and figure out how much of it (if not all) you can apply. I only wish this book was available 30 years ago! Alas, it is never too late to learn new tricks and adopt new processes. Bottom line, I'll state it plainly - buy the book! Want to "create" more time to read, slide that extra book or three into your monthly reading/listening agenda, and at the same time probably uncover new interests or pursuits? Now, none of us has any excuse. It's helped me already and I only read it a month ago. To me, it's all about discipline, time management and even knowing it's OK to put a book aside if it's just not working for you (the heck with the pundits and scholars). I don't want this to sound like an infomercial - so just give it a peek. I look forward to listening to the audio edition of Steve's great work (read the book, you'll get the joke)! Cheers.

Candy for a reader

How can any reader not love a book that starts out with the quote from Gustave Flaubert, "Read in order to Live"? Steve Leveen, CEO of Levenger, has written a thought-provoking book for readers, The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life. There are ideas for finding more time in your life to read, such as listening to audio books. He suggests methods to make your reading more meaningful, such as making a List of Candidates, books you want to read. (The bibliography alone is a great starting place!) There are suggestions for building a library, and ways to share books. And, as a librarian, I appreciate a book that says, "Like our national parks, our public libraries constitute a treasure that many Americans take advantage of hardly at all." The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life is like candy for a reader; sweet, enticing, and it leaves you craving more.

What a wonderful book about books!

This book will help you fall in love with books and reading, maybe all over again. The author writes from the heart, as a person who has discovered the joys of reading and wants to pass on this experience to as many people as possible. This is an ideal gift for anyone you care about, because it will bring more gifts into their lives as a result of its sage advice. Steve Leveen helps us to understand how best to read if we want to make the most of the experience and get the most out of it. He shows us how to give a book a fair chance, and when to cut and run! He reintroduces us to the power of the classics, while also reminding us that it's ok not to like a particular classic, and to just stop reading it if it's not connecting with us. This book is full of literary romance, practical insight, great advice, cool factoids, and much more. I liked it so much, I've just bought 82 copies to give away!!!!!!!! So that probably says it all. Buy this book and open a new chapter in your reading life!!!!!

read more & enjoy it!

Rebeccasreads highly recommends THE LITTLE GUIDE TO YOUR WELL-READ LIFE as a satisfying handbook on a subject we tend to take for granted, & the black & white illustrations are enchanting! For all of us who wished we'd kept a list of what we've read -- spend just three hours with this LITTLE GUIDE & add years of fulfillment to your reading life by discovering: -- how to read 12 more books a years even if you have no more time to read. -- why part of your personal library should be empty & a large part filled with books you want to read. -- how to get a "reading" on a book before you read it. -- when to give up on a book(even if it's a classic!) -- how to create your very own reading biography. Steve Leveen has a charming & articulate way of writing, showing us how we can get more of what we all like into our lives, as well as how we can extract more from what we are already doing, & loving.

How to Make Books a Part of Your Life

If you are a booklover or have a special booklover in your life, this is the book for you. It is a breezy and charming guide to making books a part of your life, and getting more out of the ones that you read. Included in the advice is how to create a "Book of Candidates" - a list of books you want to read and how to keep a Bookography - a list of books you have read which becomes a sort of diary of your reading life. Another suggestion is creating a shelf of books called "For When I Go There" - books about special places you want to visit, saved to be read when you are finally there. The atmosphere of reading a novel about Venice for example is greatly enhanced when reading it sipping a cappuccino at a cafe overlooking the Grand Canal. I know, I've done it, savoring both the book and the place. Leveen also tells us how to get more out of the books we do read. He promotes engaged active reading by feeling free to write our thoughts and comments in the margins of books (he calls this being a a Footprint Leaver vs. being a Preservationist, a person who believes in leaving a book in a pristine condition). He advises not rushing to put a completed book back on our shelves the minute we have finished reading it. Instead he tells us to review it a day, a week, a month after reading it in order to aid in the retention of the book's contents. There is also advice on audio books and joining bookclubs. In the end he quotes Anatole Broyard, "A good book is never exhausted, it goes on whispering to you from the wall". This would make a perfect gift for a booklover you know.