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stargazerfish0's review against another edition
4.0
A really enjoyable book. The author kind of goes on sometimes (he admits it) and kind of drives his ideas into the ground, but because this book is written in a conversational way, it's not so bad. As someone who has a (bad?) habit of only reading nonfiction, this has made me excited to read more fiction, and so it's accomplished what it set out to do.
knynas1's review against another edition
2.0
2 ⭐
Meh. No new information for me. It was mostly the author touting how well read he is and his ability to use pretentious language. I was hoping for more.
Meh. No new information for me. It was mostly the author touting how well read he is and his ability to use pretentious language. I was hoping for more.
zebac's review against another edition
3.0
I was delighted to encounter a fellow end-reader and I enjoyed Foster’s exploration of novels and how they have changed. Only reservation is that he does plug his own favourite authors a bit too much.
rebelqueen's review
4.0
This was a good overview of the conventions of the novel. It explores both classical and modern novels. Foster’s style is also light and funny, which makes this resource approachable.
spookysoto's review
3.0
Rating:2.5/5 It's ok
I read this book to be able to read more critically, and this offers advice on how to do it. It was very interesting at first but towards the middle and end it became very boring.
My biggest problem was the examples used, it limited to a few classic works I'm not familiar with, so it was difficult to fully grasp his teachings. I like the fact he put a short story at the end to serve as a practice for everything he talked about throughout the book.
I wish it had a broader scope regarding the novels and works discussed, and to not be limited to Usa and British works. I'd have loved to see him use modern literature and literature of around the world.
I read this book to be able to read more critically, and this offers advice on how to do it. It was very interesting at first but towards the middle and end it became very boring.
My biggest problem was the examples used, it limited to a few classic works I'm not familiar with, so it was difficult to fully grasp his teachings. I like the fact he put a short story at the end to serve as a practice for everything he talked about throughout the book.
I wish it had a broader scope regarding the novels and works discussed, and to not be limited to Usa and British works. I'd have loved to see him use modern literature and literature of around the world.