My Reading Life

Praise

“Timely as well as timeless … Elegant, evocative, and elegaic.”
—Boston Globe

“The 15 essays in My Reading Life should delight curious readers … [Conroy] is fun to read and debate.”
—USA Today

“Pat Conroy doesn’t just love books, he devours them. He doesn’t just visit libraries and bookstores, he inhabits them. He doesn’t enjoy language, he revels in it … [My Reading Life] is a rich, unabashedly self-critical and moving tribute to a writer’s passion …  Like Stephen King did in his remarkable On Writing, Conroy reminds us of his considerable talents for telling a story and arranging words.”
—Associated Press

“In this marvelous blueprint for how to engage with all things literary, the goal is not only to get wet, but to fall deeply and madly in over our heads. With its heady mix of memoir, advice and out-and-out lust for the written word, My Reading Life asks how we could possibly settle for anything less.”
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“[Conroy’s] fans will savor these 15 essays on the books and people that helped shape his long writing career … They lend themselves to being taken up separately, at leisure, and savored like a rich dessert.”
—The Charlotte Observer

“My Reading Life extols the glories of books [and] offers heartfelt thanks to those who encouraged a passion that led [Conroy] to writing.”
—The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)

“In My Reading Life, we not only learn about many of Conroy’s pivotal reading experiences, we see how he came together as a writer, and are entertained by a host of stories about unlikely heroes.”
—Asheville Citizen-Times

“Conroy’s legion of fans will doubtlessly bond with the author as he earnestly explores the role of books in providing him with inspiration and solace.”
—Publishers Weekly

“What a delightful little book … with a punch far sturdier than its compact size might suggest … Try to resist rereading it!”
—Booklist
 
PRAISE FOR PAT CONROY:

“Pat Conroy’s writing contains a virtue now rare in most contemporary fiction: passion.”
—Denver Post

“Reading Pat Conroy is like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel.”
—Houston Chronicle