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The 100 Best Quotes About Reading

You know our goal at Bookroo is to help you spend less time searching for books so you can spend more time reading! That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the 100 best quotes about reading. Read on to see the many insightful, witty, and motivating things that have been said about reading by authors, poets, scientists, artists, visionaries and even comedians.

Let us know in the comments below which is your favorite, and what quotes you would add to the list!

“ A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one. ” - George R.R. Martin

“ Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. ” - Harper Lee

“ Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them. ” - Lemony Snicket

“ You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ” - C.S. Lewis

“ Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. ” - Jim Rohn

“ I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. ” - Groucho Marx

“ ‘Classic’ – a book which people praise and don’t read. ” - Mark Twain

“ You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. ” - Ray Bradbury

“ So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall. ” - Roald Dahl

“ Think before you speak. Read before you think. ” - Fran Lebowitz

“ Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading. ” - Lena Dunham

“ That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. ” - Jhumpa Lahiri

“ The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries. ” - Descartes

“ In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. ” - Mortimer J. Adler

“ Reading one book is like eating one potato chip. ” - Diane Duane

“ The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. ” - Dr. Seuss

“ Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while. ” - Malorie Blackman

“ Books are a uniquely portable magic. ” - Stephen King

“ I read a book one day and my whole life was changed. ” - Orhan Pamuk

“ People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. ” - Logan Pearsall Smith

“ Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. ” - Margaret Fuller

“ People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned. ” - Saul Bellow

“ A good book is an event in my life. ” - Stendhal

“ Reading brings us unknown friends ” - Honoré de Balzac

“ The world was hers for the reading. ” - Betty Smith

“ I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. ” - Robert Louis Stevenson

“ The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read. ” - Benjamin Franklin

“ Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you. ” - Louis L’Amour

“ Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. ” - Fernando Pessoa

“ No. I can survive well enough on my own—if given the proper reading material. ” - Sarah J. Maas

“ There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island. ” - Walt Disney

“ We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read. ” - Jules Verne

“ A room without books is like a body without a soul. ” - Cicero

“ My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. ” - Malcolm X

“ It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s just that when I’m in the company of others – even my nearest and dearest – there always comes a moment when I’d rather be reading a book. ” - Maureen Corrigan

“ Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them. ” - Arnold Lobel

“ There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you read—unless it be reading while you eat. ” - E. Nesbit

“ One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. ” - Carl Sagan

“ I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage. ” - Roald Dahl

“ Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand. ” - Ezra Pound

“ If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. ” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. ” - P.J. O’Rourke

“ Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. ” - Jane Smiley

“ Beware of the person of one book. ” - Thomas Aquinas

“ Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. ” - Henry David Thoreau

“ Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself. ” - George Bernard Shaw

“ Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all. ” - Abraham Lincoln

“ I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once. ” - C.S. Lewis

“ You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. ” - Paul Sweeney

“ Some books leave us free and some books make us free. ” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. ” - Frederick Douglas

“ There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all. ” - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

“ Wear the old coat and buy the new book. ” - Austin Phelps

“ “You may have tangible wealth untold. Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be — I had a mother who read to me. ” - Strickland Gillilan

“ The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t. ” - Mark Twain

“ To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. ” - Victor Hugo

“ Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words! ” - Betty Smith

“ A book is a gift you can open again and again. ” - Garrison Keillor

“ Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. ” - Dr. Seuss

“ Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world. ” - Napoléon Bonaparte

“ A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. ” - Italo Calvino

“ I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. ” - Jorge Luis Borges

“ Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere. ” - Mary Schmich

“ No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. ” - Mary Wortley Montagu

“ I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them. ” - Emma Thompson

“ If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books. ” - Roald Dahl

“ That perfect tranquility of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a faithful friend and a good library. ” - Aphra Behn

“ To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life. ” - W. Somerset Maugham

“ Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book. ” - Bill Watterson

“ These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. ” - Roald Dahl

“ I guess there are never enough books. ” - John Steinbeck

“ Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day. ” - Voltaire

“ If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book. ” - J.K. Rowling

“ Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries. ” - Anne Herbert

“ Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading. ” - Rainer Maria Rilke

“ Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. ” - Emilie Buchwald

“ I couldn’t live a week without a private library – indeed, I’d part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I’d let go of the 1500 or so books I possess. ” - H.P. Lovecraft

“ Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book. ” - E.B. White

“ Luckily, I always travel with a book, just in case I have to wait on line for Santa, or some such inconvenience. ” - David Levithan

“ Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. ” - Groucho Marx

“ Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. ” - Albert Einstein

“ I always read. You know how sharks have to keep swimming or they die? I’m like that. If I stop reading, I die. ” - Patrick Rothfuss

“ There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away ” - Emily Dickinson

“ I intend to put up with nothing that I can put down. ” - Edgar Allan Poe

“ Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ” - Henry Ward Beecher

“ I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia. ” - Woody Allen

“ There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. ” - Joseph Brodsky

“ When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young. ” - Maya Angelou

“ I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. ” - Jane Austen

“ Books break the shackles of time – proof that humans can work magic. ” - Carl Sagan

“ Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for. ” - Socrates

“ For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It’s not the most social pastime. ” - Audrey Hepburn

“ Reading for me, is spending time with a friend. ” - Gary Paulsen

“ [F]rom the reading of ‘good books’ there comes a richness of life that can be obtained in no other way. ” - Gordon B. Hinckley

“ Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste. ” - Voltaire

“ How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. ” - Henry David Thoreau

“ Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. ” - Mortimer J. Adler

“ A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest. ” - C.S. Lewis

“ It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own. ” - Arthur Conan Doyle

“ Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. ” - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“ What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright. ” - Gustave Flaubert

“ I’m old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised. ” - Wisława Szymborska

“ Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today. ” - Holbrook Jackson

“ You're never too old, too wacky, too wild to pick up a book and read to a child. ” - Anita Merina

“ Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper. ” - David Quammen

“ Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or a duty. It should be offered as a gift. ” - Kate DiCamillo

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Home › Books & Reading Quotes

160 Quotes About Books & Reading

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Many of us have special memories of the books that have inspired us, and have learned the profound effect that reading the right book can have at the right moment. If you’re short on time, reading some quotes about books is the next best thing.

Books have the power to transport us to new worlds and different times , but they can also take us back to the important moments in our own lives.

From building your vocabulary to reducing stress, preventing age-related cognitive decline and increasing your ability to empathize, reading books is an easy way to look after your mind and body.

Whether you’re an avid reader or wish you read more, we hope you enjoy these quotes about books and reading!

Page Contents

Quotes About Books

′Classic′ – a book which people praise and don’t read. Mark Twain

Sleep is good, he said, and books are better. George R.R. Martin

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. Charles W. Eliot

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. Jane Smiley, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Novel

The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night. Isabel Allende

If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book. J.K. Rowling

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. Carl Sagan

When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. Erasmus

Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. Dr. Seuss

That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. Jhumpa Lahiri

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. Salman Rushdie

I love the smell of book ink in the morning. Umberto Eco

Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book. Bill Patterson

It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially. Donna Tartt, The Secret History

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. Neil Gaiman

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book. E.B. White

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. Charles Baudelaire

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island. Walt Disney

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. William Styron

The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries. Kurt Vonnegut

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx

I love books. I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas. I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud. Nnedi Okorafor

Books were my pass to personal freedom. Oprah Winfrey

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. David Mitchell

If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads. Francois Mauriac

Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories. Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest. C.S. Lewis

Wear the old coat and buy the new book. Austin Phelps

The best books… are those that tell you what you know already. George Orwell, 1984

It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. C.S. Lewis

Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Reading one book is like eating one potato chip. Diane Duane

For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. Anne Lamott

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. Mortimer J. Adler

I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher

I guess there are never enough books. John Steinbeck

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries. Anne Herbert

Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books. Ursula K. LeGuin

A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. Terry Pratchett

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Toni Morrison

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! Thomas Babington Macaulay

Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper. David Quammen

You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. Paul Sweeney

I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books. Gary Paulsen

Happiness. That’s what books smells like. Happiness. That’s why I always wanted to have a book shop. What better life than to trade in happiness? Saran MacLean

Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don’t you agree? Christopher Paolini

Quotes About Reading

Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write. Annie Proulx

Reading brings us unknown friends. Honore de Belzac

My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. Malcolm X

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere. Jean Rhys

Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while. Malorie Blackman

We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind. Anna Quindlen

Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world. Napoleon Bonaparte

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. Harper Lee

Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I’d rather boast about the ones I’ve read. Jorge Luis Borges

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. Mary Wortley Montagu

A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. Abraham Lincoln

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. Rene Descartes

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive. James Baldwin

Reading—the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay. William Styron

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. Ursula K. LeGuin

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities. Ben Okri

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift. Kate DiCamillo

I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage. Roald Dahl

Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them. George Saunders

Reading—even browsing—an old book can yield sustenance denied by a database search. James Gleick

Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work. Khaled Hosseini

I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time. Virginia Woolf

Reading means borrowing. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds. Roxane Gay

Read. Read. Read. Just don’t read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different style. R.L. Stine

Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading. Rainer Maria Rilke

The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours. Alan Bennett, The History Boys

It wasn’t until I started reading and found books they wouldn’t let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else. John Waters

Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly. Sir Francis Bacon

The world was hers for the reading. Betty Smith

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world. Voltaire

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. Stephen King

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. Robert Frost

Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head. Paul Auster

A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting. Walter Mosley

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul. Joyce Carol Oates

A word after a word after a word is power. Margaret Atwood

Only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers. Steven Spielberg

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live. Annie Dillard

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. John Locke

Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window. William Faulkner

Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you. Louis L’Amour

Reading was a joy, a desperately needed escape — I didn’t read to learn, I was reading to read. Christian Bauman

Reading is departure and arrival. Terri Guillemets

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” President Harry Truman

Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real. Nora Ephron

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. P.J. O’Rourke

Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading. Lena Dunham

The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t. Mark Twain

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight. Robertson Davies

Leaders are always readers. Kevin Trudeau

Ready for more reading? Check out our list of 8 Books for Graduate Students and flip some great pages today.

The Best Literary Quotes

Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills us. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Virginia Woolf, Street Haunting

Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today. Holbrook Jackson

Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand. Ezra Pound

I couldn’t live a week without a private library – indeed, I’d part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I’d let go of the 1500 or so books I possess. H.P. Lovecraft

Think of this – that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other. A.S. Byatt, Possession

If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories. Michael Ende

There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away. Emily Dickinson

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde

In the end, we’ll all become stories. Margaret Atwood

Reading is my favorite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read. Anne Brontë

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. Gustave Flaubert

So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. Roald Dahl, Matilda

Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. Cassandra Clare

Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though. J.D. Salinger

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… the man who never reads lives only one. George R.R. Martin

We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read. Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. Robert Louis Stevenson

Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them. Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. C.S. Lewis

Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets when you’ve read it several times?” Mo had said…”As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells…and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower…both strange and familiar. Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own. John Berger, Keeping a Rendezvous

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief. Franz Kafka

We hope you’ve loved these quotes about books and reading.

It’s never too late (or early) to expand your horizons and start reading, and reading books is even good for your physical and mental health . So star turning those pages and getting inspired through reading today.

Natalie Seale

2 thoughts on “160 Quotes About Books & Reading”

Thanks so much, for this wonderful book quotes.

My favorite quote is “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”– Erasmus

Thank you for this very interesting collection of thought-provoking quotes. If felt good to agree and disagree with them all – with none leaving me untouched.

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31 Sentences About Reading for Better English Grammar+Quiz

Use these 31 sentences about reading + reading quiz to improve your English grammar and vocabulary right now. Today we will explain why reading is a good way to improve English, how to make sentences about reading, and also have a fun quiz at the end as a tenses review.

Related: Expand Your Vocabulary: 45 Amazing Sentences on Books!

Sentences about reading

Let’s kick off our today’s English grammar improvement with 10 sentences about reading. These will be simple sentence examples.

• Reading is my favorite hobby.
• Ava likes to read about history.
• Science fiction is my favorite genre.
• Reading is important for my job.
• I love to read mysteries.
• Liam likes to read books.
• Reading is fun.
• I learn new things when I read.
• My favorite book is Harry Potter.
• Reading helps me to improve my English.

Reading to Improve English

Can reading improve our English grammar? Yes! Here is how:

• Reading exposes you to a wide range of grammatically correct sentence structures.
• We can notice grammar patterns when we read.
• It helps you to become more familiar with the rules of English grammar.
• You can learn new words and see how they are used in sentences.
• Reading helps you to understand the differences between different types of writing, such as formal and informal writing styles.
• You can practice your reading comprehension skills and gain a deeper understanding of written English.
• It builds overall grammar and vocabulary awareness, especially if you are reading a book you are interested in. It’s natural that you’d want to find out the meanings of new words, then. 

Sentences about reading: Advanced English sentences

Now we will have a look at 5 advanced English sentences about reading. A bit of background on book genres is helpful before reading these sentences. 

• Reading helps me to relax after a long day. I like to curl up with a good book and lose myself in a different world.
• I love to read about history. It’s totally fascinating to learn about how people lived in different times and places, for example, Roman Europe.
• My favorite type of book is science fiction. I enjoy the way that authors create new worlds and explore new technologies and ideas. Time travel and teleportation are my favorite topics!
• As a writer, I need to stay up to date on new trends and ideas in my field, and reading absolutely helps me do that. 
• I’m currently reading a mystery novel. I’m hooked on trying to solve the puzzle before the detective in the book does. Being on the edge of my seat and seeing how the story unfolds is addictive!

Reading sentences

Next, we will take a look at 5 reading sentences using the simple present tense, but before that, let’s clarify what it is and how to form it. This is a handy grammar review, and practicing grammar is beneficial for learning a language or writing. 

How to use simple present tense

To form the simple present tense, use the base form of the verb (or add an “s” or “es” to the end, if the subject is third-person singular ). We use it to describe actions that are habitual or routine. For example:

“ I read novels every day ” or “ She writes every day .”

• I read every day for at least 30 minutes.
• Reading helps me to take it easy after a long day in the office.
• My favorite author writes books that are suspenseful and thrilling.
• I always keep a book with me so that I can read whenever I have some free time.
• Some people like to read paper books, while others prefer to read ebooks or listen to audiobooks.

Sentences about reading: Present perfect simple

Now, we’ll go over 5 sentences using the present perfect simple. This is a more advanced grammar structure that can be useful for intermediate students and beyond.

How to form present perfect simple

To form the present perfect simple, use the present tense of the verb “to have” followed by the past participle of the main verb. For example, “I have written a poem” or “She has read that book.” The present perfect simple is used to describe actions that started in the past and continue up to the present or have just been completed. Now let’s use this tense to make some sentences about reading and books!

• I have read three books this month.
• Francis has studied English for five years.
• The English class has finished reading the novel.
• We have learned a lot from reading non-fiction books.
• Martin has read all of Shakespeare’s works.
• Dave hasn’t read any Shakespeare!

Sentences about reading: present perfect continuous

The final 5 of our sentences about reading will practice the present perfect continuous. This tense is a  very useful one to learn for advanced English students.

How to use present perfect continuous

To use the present perfect continuous, use the present tense of the verb “to have” followed by “been” and the present participle (also known as the “-ing” form) of the main verb. For example, “I have been studying English for hours” or “They have been reading the newspaper every morning.” The present perfect continuous is used to describe actions that started in the past, are still ongoing in the present, and may continue into the future.

• I have been reading this book for hours, and I still haven’t finished it!
• Eve has been studying English every day for the past two months.
• Paul has been reading the newspaper every morning to stay informed about current events.
• We have been learning a lot by reading books on different subjects.
• He has been reading the same book for weeks, but still can’t put it down.

Reading quiz: tenses review

Next, let’s try a short reading quiz – this will give us a tenses review. The present perfect continuous, the present perfect simple, and the simple present tense! Also, there may be a few curve balls thrown in! Answers can be found at the bottom! 

So, how many of the reading quiz questions did you get right? All, I hope! But don’t worry if you didn’t, just keep reviewing your tenses. 

Sentences about reading with improved grammar!

I hope that you have enjoyed going through today’s sentences about reading ! If you are trying to improve your English grammar and vocabulary, then reading lots is one way to do that! Yes, reading can at times be boring or bothersome, but there is a reason why well-read people have huge vocabularies! So, just as a recap, let’s go over what we’ve done today:

• Talked about how reading can improve our English
• We’ve made simple and advanced reading sentences.
• We’ve shown how to form, and example sentences using the present tense, present perfect simple, and the present perfect continuous.
• We tried a reading quiz, too!

80 Inspiring Quotes About Books and Reading

Books are important for the mind, heart, and soul. But don't take it from us: These quotes about reading speak for themselves.

By Stefanie Hargreaves

The power to be found between the pages of a book is formidable, indeed. And these 80 inspiring quotes about books and importance of reading are here to remind you of that. From beloved bestsellers to iconic celebrities, these quotes exemplify the benefits of reading and of a good books to comfort, challenge, and inspire you. For, as author Anna Quindlen says, "Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home."

"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." – Margaret Fuller

"A word after a word after a word is power." – Margaret Atwood

"One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time." – Carl Sagan

"Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world." – Napoleon Bonaparte

"A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors." – Charles Baudelaire

"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young." – Maya Angelou

"Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift." – Kate DiCamillo

"I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them." – Emma Thompson

"It wasn't until I started reading and found books they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else." – John Waters

"Books are a uniquely portable magic." – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

"Books are mirrors: You only see in them what you already have inside you." – Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Think before you speak. Read before you think. – Fran Lebowitz

"Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading." – Lena Dunham

"If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book." – J.K. Rowling

"I can feel infinitely alive curled up on the sofa reading a book." – Benedict Cumberbatch

"Some books leave us free and some books make us free." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: They feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship." – Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live." – Joan Didion, The White Album

"Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world." – Jeanette Winterson

"A good would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit." – David Sedaris

"Books are, let's face it, better than everything else. If we played Cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go fifteen rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time." – Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree

We read to know we are not alone. – C.S. Lewis

"As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music. And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul." – Ursula K. Le Guin

"It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words. Even if you don't have friends somewhere, you still have language, and it will find you and wrap its little syllables around you and suddenly there will be a story to live in." – Naomi Shihab Nye, I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven

"Read a lot. Expect something big, something exalting or deepening from a book. No book is worth reading that isn't worth re-reading." – Susan Sontag

"Have books ‘happened’ to you? Unless your answer to that question is ‘yes,’ I’m unsure how to talk to you." – Haruki Murakami

"A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth." – Andre Dubus, Meditations from a Movable Chair

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." – Frederick Douglass

"Literature is the safe and traditional vehicle through which we learn about the world and pass on values from one generation to the next. Books save lives." – Laurie Anderson

"Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps." – Ann Patchett

"Both reading and writing are experiences – lifelong – in the course of which we who encounter words used in certain ways are persuaded by them to be brought mind and heart within the presence, the power, of the imagination." – Eudora Welty

A room without books is like a body without a soul. – Cicero

"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries." – Rene Descartes

"That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet." – Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

"I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go…" – Sharon Creech

"Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while." – Malorie Blackman

"Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them." – George Saunders

"A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading." – William Styron

"I guess a big part of serious fiction’s purpose is to give the reader, who like all of us is sort of marooned in her own skull, to give her imaginative access to other selves." – David Foster Wallace

"Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real." – Nora Ephron

"Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." – Jean Rhys

"Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds." – Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive." – James Baldwin

"Reading is important. If you know how to read, then the whole world opens up to you." – Barack Obama

"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong." – F. Scott Fitzgerald

"We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: We need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever." – Philip Pullman

"Books may well be the only true magic." – Alice Hoffman, Magic Lessons

"Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know." – Alberto Manguel, A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books

"A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation... A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on, you are enriched threefold." – Henry Miller, The Books in My Life

"Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work." – Khaled Hosseini

"It is known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else." – Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

"If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads." – François Mauriac

"To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life." – W. Somerset Maugham, Books And You

"I don't read a book; I hold a conversation with the author." – Elbert Hubbard

"Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again." – Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies... The man who never reads lives only one." – George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

"Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly." – Sir Francis Bacon

"Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul." – Joyce Carol Oates

"A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe." – Madeleine L'Engle

"Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let's not forget this." – Dave Eggers

"Isn't it odd how much fatter a book gets when you've read it several times? As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells... and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like pressed flower... both strange and familiar." – Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

"The best books... are those that tell you what you know already." – George Orwell, 1984

"Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one's own self." – Franz Kafka

"Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head." – Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies

"Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled 'This could change your life.'" – Helen Exley

"There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things." – Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot

"Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book." – John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

"The best moments in reading are when you come across something–a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things–which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours." – Alan Bennett, The History Boys

"Reading is essential for those who seek to rise about the ordinary." – Jim Rohn

"The story is truly finished–and meaning is made–not when the author adds the last period, but when the reader enters." – Celeste Ng

"One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us." – Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

"A book is a gift you can open again and again." – Garrison Kellor

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers." – Charles W. Eliot

"Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don't you agree?" – Christopher Paolini

"Once you've read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you." – Louis L'Amour

"The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us." – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

"That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive–all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment." – Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

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22 Great Quotes About Reading and the Reading Life

Abby Hargreaves

Abby Hargreaves is a New Hampshire native living and working as a Children’s Librarian in Washington, D.C. She fulfills the gamut of the librarian stereotype with a love of cats, coffee, and crocheting (and likes a good run of alliteration). Her MLIS degree enjoys the company of a BA in English from Hollins University, making Abby an advocate of women's universities. Her favorite color is yellow.

View All posts by Abby Hargreaves

If you’re here, I’m guessing you’re fond of books, the reading life, and especially reading quotes. Maybe you’re a teacher who wants to cover your walls with short quotes about the importance of reading. Or, a reader looking for inspiration for reading quotes to cover your walls in. Out there in the real world, it’s sometimes hard to find others who love reading (after all, we’re all at home, reading and gazing admiringly at our books). If you need a little reminder that there are many of us who love reading and know why it’s so important (and the Book Riot Insiders , these quotes about books , or  these bookish words , aren’t enough), here are twenty-two more short quotes about reading and the reading life.

The best reading quotes

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. —Rene Descartes

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. —Dr. Seuss

(More You Know Wall Decal from WallumsWallDecals )

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Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift. —Kate DiCamillo

A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. —Abraham Lincoln

Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while. —Malorie Blackman

Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities. —Ben Okri

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. —Logan Pearsall Smith

(4 Bookish Quote Bookmarks—Set 2 from Whirling World )

Reading—even browsing—an old book can yield sustenance denied by a database search. —James Gleick

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. —Ursula K. Le Guin

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. —Joseph Addison

(Joseph Addison Reading Quote Print from IDefineMeProject )

Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them. —George Saunders

Reading—the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay. —William Styron

Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere. —Mary Schmich

A book is a dream you hold in your hands. —Neil Gaiman

(A Book Is a Dream… Print by ATArtDigital )

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere. —Jean Rhys

Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work. —Khaled Hosseini

We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind. —Anna Quindlen

Reading means borrowing. —Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. —Harper Lee

(Harper Lee Quote Glass Necklace from GeorgiaTeaberry )

Reading is my favorite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read. —Anne Brontë

Reading is departure and arrival. —Terri Guillemets

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home. —Anna Quindlen

(Anna Quindlen Reading Quotes Printable from TheBookerie )

What are your favorite reading quotes?

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English Texts for Beginners

English texts for beginners to practice reading and comprehension online and for free. Practicing your comprehension of written English will both improve your vocabulary and understanding of grammar and word order. The texts below are designed to help you develop while giving you an instant evaluation of your progress.

Prepared by experienced English teachers, the texts, articles and conversations are brief and appropriate to your level of proficiency. Take the multiple-choice quiz following each text, and you'll get the results immediately. You will feel both challenged and accomplished! You can even download (as PDF) and print the texts and exercises. It's enjoyable, fun and free. Good luck!

• Wedding Wishes PREMIUM ? »
• Countries and Nationalities PREMIUM My workday starts at seven. ? »

• Conjunctions
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READING BOOK in a Sentence Examples: 21 Ways to Use Reading Book

Are you someone who enjoys immersing yourself in the pages of a good book? If so, you already know the joy that comes from reading books. It’s the act of delving into a story, gaining knowledge, and experiencing a different world without ever leaving your seat.

Reading books is a timeless practice that allows us to expand our horizons, ignite our imagination, and enhance our understanding of the world around us. Whether it’s for entertainment, education, or personal growth, the act of reading books has the power to transport us to new places and perspectives with just a flip of a page.

Table of Contents

7 Examples Of Reading Book Used In a Sentence For Kids

• Reading book is fun and helps you learn new things.
• You can go on adventures by reading books .
• Reading books can take you to magical places.
• When you are bored, try reading a book .
• Reading books make you smarter and happier.
• Ask your parents to read you a book before bedtime.
• Make sure to visit the library and borrow some books to read.

14 Sentences with Reading Book Examples

• Reading book at the library helps me concentrate better.
• I enjoy reading book during my morning commute to college.
• Reading book in the park is a great way to relax after a long day of classes.
• I always make time for reading book in between study sessions.
• Reading book from different genres broadens my knowledge and perspective.
• Reading book before bed helps me unwind and clear my mind.
• I find reading book in a cozy café to be a peaceful escape from campus life.
• Reading book about Indian history helps me better understand our culture.
• Taking notes while reading book helps me retain information for exams.
• Reading book assigned for class discussions allows me to actively participate in lectures.
• Reading book on my e-reader is convenient for carrying multiple books at once.
• Reading book in a study group can lead to stimulating discussions and new insights.
• Reading book on my phone during breaks between classes is a convenient way to catch up on reading.
• Reading book in the college library with a cup of tea is my favorite way to spend a rainy afternoon.

How To Use Reading Book in Sentences?

Reading Book is a phrase used when referring to the act of reading a physical book.

To use Reading Book in a sentence, simply incorporate it in the context of a sentence that involves reading a book. For example, “I love reading book in the park on a sunny day.”

When using Reading Book in a sentence, make sure that it fits naturally within the sentence structure and conveys the intended meaning. You can use it as a subject, object, or part of a larger sentence to express your thoughts or actions related to reading a book.

Here are a few examples of how you can use Reading Book in a sentence:

• “She spends her evenings reading book by the fireplace.”
• “I always carry a reading book in my bag for moments of relaxation.”
• “The library is full of people reading book quietly.”
• “I find reading book to be a great way to unwind after a long day.”

Remember that when using Reading Book in a sentence, it should be used appropriately and in a way that enhances the overall message you are trying to convey. Feel free to experiment with different sentence structures and contexts to gain a better understanding of how to use Reading Book effectively in your communication.

In conclusion, reading books is a valuable activity that offers numerous benefits to individuals. By immersing oneself in the pages of a book, one can gain knowledge, expand their vocabulary, improve their concentration, and reduce stress. With sentences like “Reading a book allows you to escape into a different world for a while” or “I spend my evenings reading books to relax and unwind,” it is clear that reading is a popular and enriching pastime for many.

Moreover, the act of reading books can also enhance critical thinking skills, boost creativity, and foster empathy by allowing readers to explore different perspectives and experiences. As demonstrated by sentences such as “I can never resist buying a new book to dive into” and “Reading books has been a lifelong passion of mine,” it is evident that reading is not only an enjoyable hobby but also a powerful tool for personal growth and development. So, pick up a book and let your mind wander through the captivating world of literature.

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Listen to great content.

Most of the world's content is in textual form. Being able to listen to it - is huge! In that sense, TTSReader has a huge advantage over podcasts. You choose your content - out of an infinite variety - that includes humanity's entire knowledge and art richness. Listen to lectures, to PDF files. Paste or upload any text from anywhere, edit it if needed, and listen to it anywhere and anytime.

Proofreading

One of the best ways to catch errors in your writing is to listen to it being read aloud. By using TTSReader for proofreading, you can catch errors that you might have missed while reading silently, allowing you to improve the quality and accuracy of your written content. Errors can be in sentence structure, punctuation, and grammar, but also in your essay's structure, order and content.

Listen to web pages

TTSReader can be used to read out loud webpages in two different ways. 1. Using the regular player - paste the URL and click play. The website's content will be imported into the player. (2) Using our Chrome extension to listen to pages without leaving the page . Listening to web pages with TTSReader can provide a more accessible, convenient, and efficient way of consuming online content.

Turn ebooks into audiobooks

Upload any ebook file of epub format - and TTSReader will read it out loud for you, effectively turning it into an audiobook alternative. You can find thousands of epub books for free, available for download on Project Gutenberg's site, which is an open library for free ebooks.

Read along for speed & comprehension

TTSReader enables read along by highlighting the sentence being read and automatically scrolling to keep it in view. This way you can follow with your own eyes - in parallel to listening to it. This can boost reading speed and improve comprehension.

Generate audio files from text

TTSReader enables exporting the synthesized speech with a single click. This is available currently only on Windows and requires TTSReader’s premium . Adhering to the commercial terms some of the voices may be used commercially for publishing, such as narrating videos.

Accessibility, dyslexia, etc.

For individuals with visual impairments or reading difficulties, listening to textual content, lectures, articles & web pages can be an essential tool for accessing & comprehending information.

Language learning

TTSReader can read out text in multiple languages, providing learners with listening as well as speaking practice. By listening to the text being read aloud, learners can improve their comprehension skills and pronunciation.

Kids - stories & learning

Kids love stories! And if you can read them stories - it's definitely the best! But, if you can't, let TTSReader read them stories for you. Set the right voice and speed, that is appropriate for their comprehension level. For kids who are at the age of learning to read - this can also be an effective tool to strengthen that skill, as it highlights every sentence being read.

Main Features

Ttsreader is a free text to speech reader that supports all modern browsers, including chrome, firefox and safari..

Includes multiple languages and accents. If on Chrome - you will get access to Google's voices as well. Super easy to use - no download, no login required. Here are some more features

Fun, Online, Free. Listen to great content

Drag, drop & play (or directly copy text & play). That’s it. No downloads. No logins. No passwords. No fuss. Simply fun to use and listen to great content. Great for listening in the background. Great for proof-reading. Great for kids and more. Learn more, including a YouTube we made, here .

Multilingual, Natural Voices

We facilitate high-quality natural-sounding voices from different sources. There are male & female voices, in different accents and different languages. Choose the voice you like, insert text, click play to generate the synthesized speech and enjoy listening.

Exit, Come Back & Play from Where You Stopped

TTSReader remembers the article and last position when paused, even if you close the browser. This way, you can come back to listening right where you previously left. Works on Chrome & Safari on mobile too. Ideal for listening to articles.

Vs. Recorded Podcasts

In many aspects, synthesized speech has advantages over recorded podcasts. Here are some: First of all - you have unlimited - free - content. That includes high-quality articles and books, that are not available on podcasts. Second - it’s free. Third - it uses almost no data - so it’s available offline too, and you save money. If you like listening on the go, as while driving or walking - get our free Android Text Reader App .

Read PDF Files, Texts & Websites

TTSReader extracts the text from pdf files, and reads it out loud. Also useful for simply copying text from pdf to anywhere. In addition, it highlights the text currently being read - so you can follow with your eyes. If you specifically want to listen to websites - such as blogs, news, wiki - you should get our free extension for Chrome

Export Speech to Audio Files

TTSReader enables exporting the synthesized speech to mp3 audio files. This is available currently only on Windows, and requires ttsreader’s premium .

Pricing & Plans

• Online text to speech player
• Chrome extension for reading webpages
• Premium TTSReader.com
• Premium Chrome extension
• Better support from the development team

Compare plans

Sister Apps Developed by Our Team

Speechnotes

Dictation & Transcription

Type with your voice for free, or automatically transcribe audio & video recordings

Buttons - Kids Dictionary

Turns your device into multiple push-buttons interactive games

Animals, numbers, colors, counting, letters, objects and more. Different levels. Multilingual. No ads. Made by parents, for our own kids.

Ways to Get In Touch, Feedback & Community

Visit our contact page , for various ways to get in touch with us, send us feedback and interact with our community of users & developers.

I Can Read! Levels

Browse by level to find great books that are just right for your emerging reader..

My Very First: INTRODUCTION TO READING Basic features of print and reading, short and simple sentences, and full-color stories for children at the very first stages of learning to read.

The story begins with my very first books introduce children to reading with the my very first reading level. books at this level feature tug the pup and friends, a series written by reading specialist and international education consultant, dr. julie m. wood. each of the three box sets comes with 11 full-color stories, a parents’ guide containing tips on reading with your child, and reward stickers..

My First: SHARED READING Basic language, word repetition, and whimsical illustrations, ideal for sharing with your emergent reader.

The first step to helping children become great readers is reading aloud to them. books at this level, like biscuit and pete the cat: too cool for school , have short compelling stories, and are written with simple vocabulary. repeated phrases allow young readers to read some words along with their parents. many of the words are sight words children recognize. active, engaging stories have appealing plots and loveable characters just for early readers..

Level 1: BEGINNING READING Short sentences, familiar words, and simple concepts for children eager to read on their own.

This level is just right for readers who are beginning to sound out words and sentences. books on this level, like danny and the dinosaur , are written with simple sentences using familiar words. many of the books at this level are filled with animal characters that have wonderful adventures the vocabulary is just challenging enough to stay interesting. children looking for favorite characters at this level will find the berenstain bears , pinkalicious , and more..

Level 2: READING WITH HELP Engaging stories, longer sentences, and language play for developing readers who still need some help.

Level 2 is for readers who are increasingly confident, but still need some help. books at this level, like frog and toad are friends , and amelia bedelia titles include more complex story lines, longer sentences, and more challenging words. mystery and adventure stories, like plants vs. zombies; save your brains and justice league classic: i am the flash, are included at this level, too..

Level 3: READING ALONE Complex plots, challenging vocabulary, and high-interest topics for the independent reader.

Level 3 includes many fun subjects kids love to read about on their own. historical fiction books, like the drinking gourd and buffalo bill and the pony express, are introduced at this level. other themes include friendship, adventure, and science. level 3 books are written for independent readers. they include challenging words and more complex themes and stories..

Level 4: ADVANCED READING Short paragraphs, chapters, and exciting themes for the perfect bridge to chapter books.

Level 4 books are for children who are well on the road to becoming book lovers and are fully independent readers. this level features more historical fiction titles, like dinosaur hunter and first flight, as well as books about adventure and suspense. the stories are the most advanced of all the i can read levels..

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5 Strategies to Learn a Language by Reading Books

Reading isn’t usually the first thing a language learner thinks of doing to learn their desired language. In fact, we often prefer to start talking immediately. Or we watch movies in the target language. Or we just blindly follow the textbook.

You may be surprised if I told you that curling up and reading a good book may actually be one of the fastest ways to fluency.

But it can be, if done right . Use these five powerful strategies to learn a language while reading books.

5 Key Strategies to Learn a Language by Reading Books

1. start with children’s books, 2. try parallel texts, 3. read extensively, 4. read intensively, 5. find books about your interests, how reading books can help you learn a language, reading eliminates limiting factors , reading reinforces word acquisition, reading promotes word choice precision, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

If you’re gonna be reading, then you better be doing it right. You’d save a lot of time and effort doing so. People who swear that reading never works often aren’t doing it right.

Start with books that have shorter content, basic vocabulary and use simple sentence structures .

A category that meets all these requirements is children’s books. The thing that turns people off with this type of literature is only that it insults their sensibilities. I’m a fully grown man and you want me to read what??

They forget that, for all intents and purposes, they’re really just like kids in the language that they’re trying to learn!

Starting off with the easiest reading material is very crucial to your progress. All the other books assume you have the basics down. Don’t think that by reading the intermediate material, you can learn the basics along the way. It doesn’t work that way. You’ll only be hurting yourself when you become overly ambitious with your learning material.

• Thousands of learner friendly videos (especially beginners)
• Handpicked, organized, and annotated by FluentU's experts
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Drop your prejudice against children’s books and start reading early, not when you’re already months into your studies.

In addition to reading the easy books first, try reading books that are written in a bilingual format, where the translations are written immediately below the sentence you’re reading. This one-to-one sentence correspondence will save you from reaching for the nearest dictionary to locate the meaning of a word every time. As a result, you’ll have a smoother reading experience.

You’ll also be able to notice how the grammar rules of your target language compare with your own thanks to this layout. You’ll be able to take advantage of the similarities and be aware of the differences. You might, for example, notice that the language you’re studying predominantly mentions the subject ahead of the verb (for example: The dog is sleeping ) — just like in English.

This is about quantity.

Don’t worry too much if you’re not fully absorbing the actual meaning of the material you’re reading. Just read on. Don’t be tempted to grab the dictionary on the first unfamiliar word you meet. Just barrel through the text and read on anyway. We know it sound counter-intuitive, but it works, I swear.

The purpose of this kind of reading is to expose you to as much material as possible. Don’t worry about comprehension. We’re practicing your contextualizing abilities here. Simply guess what you’re reading about. You don’t have to get it right all the time, just make a guess and trust that you’ll be close enough.

• Interactive subtitles: click any word to see detailed examples and explanations
• Slow down or loop the tricky parts
• Show or hide subtitles
• Review words with our powerful learning engine

Now I know that there are some people who’ll have a hard time with this—the kind of person that doesn’t want to move ahead without first understanding every word, every phrase and every sentence on the page. Otherwise, they’ll get a nagging feeling that something’s wrong.

I strongly urge you to let go of the burden and just barrel through the text. Don’t worry, nobody’s watching.

This is the direct opposite of the previous method. You’ll need to designate reading time for both of these strategies because each one has its own merits.

Reading intensively is about quality.

Actively be involved in what you’re reading. Try to absorb all the lessons presented on one page before moving on to the next.

Have a dictionary close by. Write copious amounts of notes on the margins of the page. Write your mnemonics , insights and examples. Underline, highlight and encircle words. Dog ear the pages. Make flashcards of new words.

To make these activities more convenient and readily accessible, you can opt for reading material with built-in translation and dictionary tools. E-books also come with many useful features for language learners.

• Learn words in the context of sentences
• Swipe left or right to see more examples from other videos
• Go beyond just a superficial understanding

Your goal isn’t to finish the book or to get the story. Your goal is to learn the language along the way. Don’t busy yourself with the character or the plot. They’re but a means to an end.

Find foreign-language books and articles on topics that interest you. Are you into cooking ? Read recipes and cookbooks in your target language. Do you love entertainment and celebrity stories? There are many publications that cater to that love.

This’ll ensure that you won’t get bored with what you’re setting your eyes on. Because truth be told, reading in a foreign language is no walk in the park at first. You’re facing a page filled with strange writing, punctuation and grammar rules. So reading a subject that naturally engages you will help ease the labor pains.

In addition, the specific vocabulary you develop by reading a specific field will be your stable jumping off point into the language as a whole. A field of interest, like cooking, will have terms and jargon that are often repeated and most commonly associated with it. 

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

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A limiting factor is something that, regardless of the time, energy and money spent on the process, hinders your language learning. Books are plentiful and cheap (often free), so you can always have one with you, physically or digitally. You can read on the bus or while waiting in line. In short, reading is easy, so it’s eliminating a limiting factor from your language learning process.

Reading gives the brain much to work on. It actively involves the visual cortex in the learning process and makes the lessons more memorable. So instead of just listening to the Spanish word saltar (to jump), you’ll see how the word is spelled and used in a simple sentence. You’ll also see a beautifully colored illustration of a little boy jumping. That’s definitely more memorable than simply listening to a word being spoken, or seeing it written on a whiteboard along with a hundred other words.

As mentioned before, the written word is more nuanced than the spoken word. Writers consider their words more carefully than a native speaker chitchatting with friends.

• FluentU builds you up, so you can build sentences on your own
• Start with multiple-choice questions and advance through sentence building to producing your own output
• Go from understanding to speaking in a natural progression.

When native speakers talk in person, they have the advantage of a shared context. And often, they only have one listener to attend to. A writer, in addition to the multiplicity of potential readers, needs to consider the different instances that a book will be read. They need to be thoughtful of the different backgrounds of their audience. So they need to be very accurate and precise with their writing. They cannot be as vague as the speakers, because they can easily be misunderstood and they won’t be there to defend themselves.

Remember, these five strategies are here to make you not only read effectively, but also help you in the larger role of acquiring the language. I hope you stop thinking that reading is only for people who are interested in higher linguistic forms or complicated grammar rules.

It’s for everyone who hopes to understand a second language. Reading can make the difference between you speaking the language that you love, and you still knowing only English.

If you want to get the very basics of a tongue, you better sit tight and read!

If you dig the idea of learning on your own time from the comfort of your smart device with real-life authentic language content, you'll love using FluentU .

• Images, examples, video examples, and tips
• Covering all the tricky edge cases, eg.: phrases, idioms, collocations, and separable verbs
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• 100,000+ hours spent by FluentU's team to create and maintain

With FluentU, you'll learn real languages—as they're spoken by native speakers. FluentU has a wide variety of videos as you can see here:

FluentU App Browse Screen.

FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.

Didn't catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.

Interactive, dual-language subtitles.

You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU's "learn mode." Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.

FluentU Has Quizzes for Every Video

And FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You get a truly personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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Trending Post : Books Made Into Movies

18 Picture Books With Predictable, Repetitive Text

This post may contain affiliate links.

Picture books with predictable, repetitive text develop language and literacy skills in all ages of growing readers from birth on up.

Read these to your toddlers and preschoolers.

Read these with your kindergartners.

Read these with your growing readers of any age, particularly readers who need the support that predictability and repetition provides.

Bottom line — use these with any child who is learning to read as these books are invaluable to growing readers.

Here’s why. Predictable, repetitive text structures…

• develop confidence! The repetition gets memorized and kids can “read” the repeated phrases and refrains. This grows their identity as a reader as well as familiarizes them with these words. (No, they’re not reading, they’re recalling what they’ve memorized. That’s OK!)
• help decoding
• improve fluency
• improve comprehension

There’s plenty of research that shows that predictable storylines also develop children as readers, too. Read: How Predictable Book Series Benefit Beginning Readers .

You Might Also Like:

Picture Books with Personification

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.

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These books are great for helping teaching students who need help with reading.

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Building Great Sentences: How to Write the Kinds of Sentences You Love to Read (Great Courses, 1) Paperback – June 25, 2013

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Print length 288 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Plume
• Publication date June 25, 2013
• Dimensions 5.3 x 0.61 x 7.98 inches
• ISBN-10 0452298601
• ISBN-13 978-0452298606
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved..

Introduction

We live in a world of words. Digital media inundate us with language in a twenty-four/seven barrage never possible in the world of printer’s ink. Constant Web updates, blogs, e-mails, instant messaging, tweets, Facebook comments, and a cascade of electronic texts give us expanded opportunities to share our writing with others. Even in the age of Skype and FaceTime we continue to interact with others through writing. More and more it is important that we represent ourselves to the world through writing that is effective—clear, precise, satisfyingly informative writing that reveals the individuality and sophistication of our thinking. And we cannot be effective writers without writing effective sentences.

Whatever the medium, print or digital, our basic unit of communication is the sentence. Good sentences are alive. We experience them in time, and we react to their unfolding as they twist and turn, challenging us, teasing us, surprising us, and sometimes boring or confusing us as we read them. This book will explore the ways we can make our sentences better. To accomplish that we need to understand how making our sentences longer or shorter can make them more effective, more informative, more satisfying. We need to understand how taking control of building and trimming our sentences can improve our writing.

Our goals will be to learn about how sentences work, what they do, and how we can think and talk about them in ways that will help both our own writing and our understanding of prose style. We will stretch our sense of all the things a sentence can be or do. We will explore the mysterious concept of “style” to discover what style does and does not mean. This is a book in which we will dance with language, not a book in which we will trudge toward remedial correctness.

Dancing with language can be a rowdy affair. We might wish this dance had the precision, rules, and predictability of a tango, but it probably has much more in common with freestyle dancing that is more spontaneous and more creative, open to new steps and encouraging the reinterpretation of old ones. When the writer dances with language, toes do sometimes get stepped on as rules are broken. Of course, in dancing, as in writing, we need some ideas of what the rules are before we can break them. Before this dancing metaphor runs away with me, however, I better start talking as the writing teacher I am, rather than the dancing instructor I most certainly am not.

I’m no writing guru with mystical formulas for success. I am both a longtime student of writing theory and a writing teacher with over thirty years of experience. During that time, I’ve both learned a lot about writing and passed along what I’ve learned to several generations of students. What I believe and teach about writing is more thoughtful than theoretical, based more on what I’ve found helpful to my students in the classroom than on strict adherence to any single philosophy or theory of composition. My approach to teaching writing does, however, grow out of the three broad categories of writing instruction that are focused on the sentence.

At the heart of my approach is Francis Christensen’s belief in the value of cumulative sentences built by adding modifying phrases to base clauses or “kernel” sentences. I expand Christensen’s advocacy of cumulative sentences by identifying and explaining the value of a range of syntactical and rhetorical patterns, forms, or schemes I ask my students to imitate until they learn how to adapt these patterns to their own uses. In trusting the value of imitation as a basis for rather than as the opposite of creativity, I am championing a classical approach to writing I believe remains highly effective. The third component of my approach to writing incorporates many of the assumptions of sentence-combining strategies popular in the 1970s. I’ll say more about the nature and history of those three sentence-based approaches in my final chapter, after you’ve had a chance to experience and try out some of my particular spin on their methods and assumptions. For now I want to assure you that my approach to building great sentences grows out of pedagogies of proven effectiveness and promotes ways of building better sentences that fine writers know and practice. In drawing from and finding ways to combine these three broad approaches to the sentence I also try to provide a better understanding of the ways in which our standards and “rules” for effective writing have changed over time—and continue to evolve.

No rules or formulas or mechanical protocols can prepare us for the infinite number of tasks our sentences must accomplish, but there are a number of basic strategies we can learn that help make our sentences more effective. I’m going to introduce you to a broad range of techniques, but a particular favorite of mine is the cumulative sentence, an especially useful syntax employed by professional writers and best understood in terms first laid out by composition theorist Francis Christensen back in the 1960s.

Before we can work with a specific syntax, we need to understand the basic principles that guide the creation and use of all sentences. Accordingly, this book will look closely and carefully at sentences from a number of different angles, starting with their underlying logic and moving through the reasons why we cannot separate the content of a sentence from its form, its meaning from its style. We will look at the ways sentences work, from the most basic kernel sentences that are nothing more than a subject joined with a verb, to the most elaborate and extended master sentences, some stretching to lengths of more than one hundred words.

In examining the ways in which sentences work and why they sometimes don’t work, we will also encounter, understand, and possibly even master some of the secrets of prose style. Everyone who writes about prose style advances a particular view of it, and each view reflects the personal values and preferences of that particular writer. Yet somehow we generally agree that there is something called prose style. We generally agree on a number of aspects of writing that seem to have something to do with style, and we generally agree that there are some writers, ranging from Shakespeare to Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion to John Updike, Don DeLillo to Marilynne Robinson, who just seem to be better at it than others. When

F. Scott Fitzgerald writes in The Great Gatsby , describing Daisy, “Her face was sad and lovely with bright things in it, bright eyes and a bright passionate mouth, but there was an excitement in her voice that men who had cared for her found difficult to forget: a singing compulsion, a whispered ‘Listen,’ a promise that she had done gay, exciting things just a while since and that there were gay, exciting things hovering in the next hour,” who can doubt that we are in the hands of a great writer?

This book can’t begin to explain all of the mysteries of prose style. Nor can it offer universally agreed-upon standards for writing that is great or even effective. What this book can do is look closely and carefully at sentences, the most important building blocks of prose, the foundation of written communication, and the essential units of prose style. I hope you will join me in considering and celebrating the magic of the sentence as you think about and try out some of the writing strategies I suggest in this book. All of my ideas about sentences may not fit your goals for your own writing, but I hope you will find my discussion useful even when you do not agree with some of its parts. My ultimate goal, you see, is not to get you to agree with me about a specific view of writing but to encourage you to join me in the much larger and more important enterprise of exploring the power and promise of language.

At the end of each chapter in Building Great Sentences I’ll suggest some writing exercises that may help illustrate the ideas and methods explored in the chapter. Writing is a purpose-driven activity and most of our day-to-day writing purposes call on us to construct something longer than an individual sentence. Yet, in this book my advice will rarely be about units of prose larger than the sentence. The classic advice given to backpackers trying to limit the weight they have to carry is “Pay attention to the ounces, and the pounds take care of themselves.” Something very similar is true of writing: “Pay attention to your sentences, and most other writing problems take care of themselves.” Nevertheless, in my Prose Style class at Iowa I do suggest to my students that they craft their responses to specific syntactic assignments as if the individual sentences were part of a larger writing project. I suggest they imagine that they are writing their autobiography or a description of how they mastered a skill or learned a lesson. They might imagine they are writing a profile of someone who had a significant impact on their lives. You may have an actual writing project to which you can direct your sentence experiments or you may actually prefer to craft your sentences with no connections among them other than the range of your imagination. Most of the exercises I will suggest as Next Steps involve so many variables that they will not elicit sentences that are right or wrong. But they will help you understand how sentences work—and what can make them great.

Chapter One •

A Sequence of Words

"This is what I mean when I call myself a writer,” writes novelist Don DeLillo. “I construct sentences.” Thomas Berger, the author of Little Big Man and a writer, like DeLillo, long celebrated for the vitality of his language, makes much the same point when he terms the sentence “the cell beyond which the life of the book cannot be traced, a novel being a structure of such cells.” As Berger explains:

In another sense, only the sentence exists or at any rate can be proved to exist. Even at the stage of the paragraph, things are becoming theoretical and arbitrary. A “novel” is an utter hallucination: no definition of it, for example, can really distinguish it from a laundry list. But a sentence—there you have something essential, to which nothing can be added and from which nothing can be taken.

Of course, the sentence in which Berger describes the sentence as “something essential, to which nothing can be added and from which nothing can be taken” is not just a sentence—that’s a great sentence! And here’s the beauty of great sentences: they come in all shapes and sizes and lots of different things can make them great. Great precision and specificity, great dramatic impact, great sound, great ways in which they direct the reader’s thinking, great ways in which they reveal the writer’s mind at work, great logical progression, great imagery—and the list goes on and on. Once we start looking at and thinking about individual sentences, rather than simply thinking of the sentence as just another brick in a wall of words, once we consider the sentence with the care we bring to the reading of poetry, we separate ourselves from most other readers and writers and can set out in pursuit of greatness. Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Michael Cunningham should be our guide here, with his wonderful comment: “I’m still hoping to write a great sentence. If I do, I’ll let you know.”

I think I know why Cunningham, DeLillo, and Berger declare their passionate allegiance to the sentence, and while I don’t pretend to write sentences as well as they do, I believe that the sentence is where we must start if we hope to understand why some writing captivates us and other writing leaves us unmoved. To be better writers, we must first and foremost write better sentences. I’m absolutely certain that whatever great writing may be, the secret to achieving it has largely to do with learning how to write great sentences. So, as I said before, this will be a book about sentences. Even more bluntly, this will be a book about how to make sentences longer.

Why longer? It’s hard to improve on any of the well-known, justly celebrated one- and two-word sentence classics our culture has enshrined. “Jesus wept,” the shortest verse in the New Testament, comes to mind, as does “Nuts!” the famous reply offered by General Anthony McAuliffe, acting commander of the 101st Airborne, when the Germans demanded his surrender during the Battle of the Bulge. But no one can really teach how to write one- and two-word sentences, and most of us will go a lifetime without being presented with the opportunity for crafting stunning short sentences. So, for reasons I hope to make clear as we go along, this is a book about how we make sentences longer, and it’s based on my assumption that longer sentences—and this is important— when carefully crafted and tightly controlled , are essential keys to great writing. Listen to Joseph Conrad’s elegantly balanced and extended sentence describing a native woman in Heart of Darkness , a sentence I truly love: “She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress.” I find that sentence more interesting as a sentence than either “Nuts!” or “Jesus wept.”

There’s an old advertising slogan originally made famous by a cigarette manufacturer: “It’s not how long you make it, but how you make it long.” We will not be making sentences longer to showcase our big vocabularies or simply because we can. A longer sentence is not necessarily a better sentence, but a sentence containing more useful information, more specific detail, and more explanation will almost always be better than a shorter sentence that lacks that information, detail, and explanation. And longer sentences, when they are appropriate, need to be carefully designed and controlled in ways that make them easy to follow and understand: more information, detail, and explanation are wasted if the reader cannot easily keep in mind what the sentence is doing. My goal is to show you how to add to the informational texture of your sentences—their propositional content—and consider their affective or dramatic impact on your readers.

What Sentences Do

“Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?” Gertrude Stein once asked. Certainly the sequences of words we identify as sentences are capable of providing pleasure, just as surely as they are capable of conveying crucial information. Sometimes the most important information sentences convey is pleasure, as they unfold their meanings in ways that tease, surprise, test, and satisfy. Sometimes the way sentences unfold their meaning is the most important meaning they offer.

Let’s start by thinking about what a sentence is and how it works, and let’s start with that sentence from Gertrude Stein: “Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?” We know sentences can function as exclamations, imperatives, declarations, or interrogatives, and this one seems at first glance to be an interrogative. It asks a question. It’s a simple question. Or is it? Isn’t it really a declaration that a sequence of words should be a pleasure? Or is it an invitation to list the numerous occasions when a sequence of words is definitely not a pleasure? “I have a case of stomach flu” comes to mind, or “The Internal Revenue Service has selected your return from last year for an audit.” Not much pleasure there! Or is it an argument that language should do nothing but give pleasure? Does it almost have the force of an exclamation—saying, in effect, “Words in sequence—always a pleasure!” What does this seemingly simple sequence of words actually mean? How does it actually work?

Insofar as we think we understand what Stein meant with the above phrase, what are some of the ways she could have gotten that meaning across with different sentences? Just think of a few of the many, many different ways she might have written this sentence:

Why should a sequence of words not be a pleasure?

Why should a sequence of words not give pleasure?

Shouldn’t a sequence of words always give pleasure?

A sequence of words should always be a pleasure.

A sequence of words should always be pleasurable.

Words in sequence should always give pleasure.

We should always find pleasure in a sequence of words.

Why should a sequence of words not always give us pleasure?

And so on and on and on.

Not Just a Sequence of Words: The Basic Elements of a Sentence

Sentences are sequences of words, but just adding words together to make a sequence does not create a sentence. “Teacher yellow September swims hungry” is a sequence of words, but it’s not a sentence because it lacks a subject and a predicate and therefore does not express a proposition. “I am a teacher” is a sequence of words that is a sentence because it contains a subject, “I,” and a predicate, “am a teacher,” and thus it does advance a proposition. The subject is who or what is spoken of or talked about, and the predicate is what is said about the subject. Usually the subject of a sentence will be a noun or noun phrase or pronoun, and the predicate will contain some form of verb.

A proposition, which is usually expressed in the form of a sentence, is a statement about reality that can be accepted or rejected. The relationship between propositions and sentences is a little hard to pin down, since a sentence will advance or express one or more propositions, and a proposition will always be in the form of a sentence. The key here is to think of a sentence as being a visible piece of writing, while the propositions it advances are not necessarily written out. The easiest way of thinking about this relationship is to say that a written sentence usually rests on or contains or combines a number of underlying propositions, most of which the sentence simply assumes, and which would be too basic or simple-sounding to actually write out. If we write “Estranged from his family, ineffectual in his teaching, and disappointed in his writing, James Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus seeks refuge in the life of the mind,” we have suggested much more about Stephen than how he seeks refuge.

I like to think of the written sentence as the part of the iceberg you see above water, while many of its underlying propositions remain out of sight underwater. To put it another way, propositions are the atoms from which the molecule of the sentence is constructed. Most propositions usually contain several smaller or constituent propositions, as we see in the proposition I mentioned a moment ago, “I am a teacher,” which contains within it the proposition that I exist (there is an I), and that there is a thing called teacher, and that I am one of those things. So, while many of us have been taught that a sentence is a sequence of words containing a subject and a predicate that expresses an idea, it’s actually the case that most sentences express or imply a number of ideas. “I like hamburgers” expresses a thought, but what exactly do I mean by like ? What kind of hamburger am I thinking of, and why do I want someone to know this about my taste habits? As is frequently the case, many questions can be asked about this simple declaration, and each question reminds us of unspoken, unwritten propositions that may underlie the surface of this seemingly simple sentence. The sentence above about Stephen Dedalus, for example, rests on numerous propositions about his family, his occupation, and his state of mind.

We all know that sentences can convey a host of meanings, both intended and unintended, just as the manner of conveying any meaning may differ along a continuum of emotional impacts, described by stylistic theorist Walker Gibson as ranging from “tough style” to “sweet style” to “stuffy style.” For instance, I might have said “You better believe I like hamburgers,” which would be “tough style,” or “Don’t you think hamburgers are just fabulous?” which would be a “sweet style,” or “My gastronomic preferences include, but are not limited to, that peculiarly American version of the sandwich known as a hamburger”—definitely a “stuffy style.”

If we return for a moment to Gertrude Stein’s sentence, “Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?” we can see that it actually advances a number of propositions, including that there are these things we call words. Words can be put together in a sequence. Words in a sequence can give pleasure. Words in a sequence ought to give pleasure. Words in a sequence should give nothing but pleasure, and are there reasons why words in a sequence should not be a pleasure?

I’m trying to make the point that the basic unit of writing is the proposition, not the word or even a sequence of words, and we build sentences by putting propositions together. The style of our sentences is determined by the ways in which we combine not words, but the propositions those words stand for or refer to. One of our first goals will be to understand how sentences combine propositions to present information, and how we can present our own ideas more effectively.

Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Choices

Each sentence we write reflects several choices: Why write rather than speak? What should we write about, and what do we want to accomplish in writing about it? Which words should we use? In what order should we put those words? There’s not much any writing teacher can do to tell you when to write or to help you choose your subject matter or to help you decide what you want your writing to do. But I can address some important things you’ll want to keep in mind as you choose your words, particularly the degree of precision in your vocabulary choices, and I can address how you put together the words you choose. We call that order “syntax.”

The order in which our sentences unfold or hit the reader is entirely within our control. Even better, syntactical choices can help us increase the precision of our writing, bringing what we say into sharper focus, even if we don’t have a mental thesaurus.

Sometimes language scholars refer to the choice of words we use as “paradigmatic choices” and the choices about the order we put them in as “syntagmatic choices.” We can imagine that each sentence we write results from paradigmatic choices we make along a vertical axis of alternate vocabulary choices we might make for each word in the sentence. Each sentence we write results from syntagmatic choices we make along a horizontal axis we read from left to right: deciding whether to put the verb early or late in the sentence, deciding where to put modifying phrases, deciding whether the information in the sentence will be coordinated (adding phrases like cars to a train) or subordinated (one piece of information made a clarifying helper to a more important piece of information). The terms paradigmatic and syntagmatic are not in themselves important for us to remember, but they help us understand two of the most important variables in our writing: word choice and word order.

Going back to Stein’s “Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?” we can see that in place of “sequence of words” she might have said “string of words” or “series of words” or “bunch of words” or “combination of words” or “number of words.” Or she might just have said, “Why should words be anything but a pleasure?” leaving out sequence altogether. But she chose the word sequence over a number of other possibilities, just as she chose to use the word pleasure over gratification, satisfaction, joy, delight, or any number of other words suggesting a positive experience.

Any word we write is chosen from a list of synonyms or a list of words that are either more or less abstract. When I write “I got into my car,” for instance, I could use a more abstract word such as vehicle or transportation . I got in my vehicle. I got in my transportation. Or I could use a less abstract word such as sedan or minivan . I got in my sedan. I got in my minivan. Or I could choose an even less abstract, more precise word or term, such as Ford or Ford Fusion . “I got in my Ford Fusion.” You can imagine a vertical series of more abstract words above the word we choose, or more precise words below the word we choose. Semanticists refer to this paradigmatic axis as the “ladder of abstraction,” and it reminds us that one of the important variables in our writing is the degree of precision in our choice of the words we use.

The other major choice we make when we write a sentence is the order in which we arrange the words we choose. For example, Stein could just as easily have made her question “Why should we get anything but pleasure from a sequence of words?” We might think of the order in which words appear in a sentence as choices made along that horizontal or syntagmatic axis we call syntax.

Form Is Content; Style Is Meaning

Now that we’ve identified the three main factors that determine the style and effectiveness of our writing—propositional content, word choice, and syntax—let’s go back to our sentence from Gertrude Stein one more time to see the most important assumption underlying this book: that the same words in different order have different meanings , or to put this another way, that style is content .

Most of us have been taught to think of style and meaning, or form and content, as two different things and, indeed, it is almost impossible to talk about language without resorting to this binary opposition. We think of content as the ideas or information our writing conveys, and we think of style as the way in which we present these ideas. Many aphorisms and metaphors have been used through the years to describe style, ranging from “Style is the man himself” to “Style is the dress of thought.” Most of these metaphors confuse our understanding of style as much as or more than they clarify it. If we have to use a metaphor to explain style, we might better think of the onion, which consists of numerous layers of onion we can peel away until there’s nothing left. The onion is its layers, and those layers don’t contain a core of “onionness,” but they are themselves the onion.

Similarly, when we write a sentence, the way we choose to order its propositional content subtly affects that content so that the meaning changes ever so slightly with every vocabulary and syntactical choice we make. It’s probably safe to say that all of us can agree that the point of Stein’s “Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?” is that words should do more than just convey information, that language is itself an experience worth considering, quite apart from its reference. But do we really believe that “Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?” means exactly the same as:

Why shouldn’t words in sequence always be a pleasure?

Shouldn’t a sequence of words be always a pleasure?

We read these sentences differently. Each reflects different stylistic choices, and each hits the reader just a little bit differently than does Stein’s original sentence, which is dismissive of opposition, as only Gertrude Stein could be. Another way of looking at this assumption is to say that when we write, we are doing something with our sentences, and what we do unfolds in time, whether to our readers’ eyes or ears. The summarizable information conveyed in our sentences is only a part of their meaning, since what they do to a reader, the way they direct the reader’s thinking, may be at least as important as the information they contain.

The point of all this is simply to remind us of something we never forget in speaking to one another—that the way we say things may be as important as or more important than what we say—but it’s something we frequently forget when we are writing. This inseparability of form from content was what poet Archibald Mac-Leish was trying to explain in his poem “Ars Poetica” when he famously noted that “a poem should not mean / but be.”

Understanding how sentences put propositions together is the first step in understanding how they work and learning how to make them work for us. We will do this by studying the ways in which sentences combine information by coordinating it, subordinating it, or subsuming it in modification. I’m going to throw a bunch of terms at you that are simply fancy ways of talking about sentence structure. We will look at the difference between sentences that combine information through loose syntax that puts the subject and verb near the beginning of the sentence, and those that do so through periodic syntax, delaying the unfolding of the sentence’s most important news until the very end, creating a sense of suspense that demands the reader’s attention, sometimes to that very last word. We will pay particular attention to the cumulative sentence, a special kind of loose syntax that can also function suspensefully (and, as we will see, suspensively) because it offers powerful generative or heuristic advantages to the writer who understands its forms. We will study the sentence as a thing in motion, a thing alive, considering the strategies writers can use to give sentences pace and rhythm, particularly the duple rhythms of balance and the three-beat rhythms of serial constructions.

I’m not sure where great writers come from or how to become one. I wish I knew! I am sure, however, where better writers come from and how to become one. All of us can learn to use the tools and strategies writers need to master in order to write great sentences. This book will identify and explain what I think are the most important and most useful tools and strategies for improving our writing.

Craft a short sentence that contains at least a subject, a verb, and an object. It can be as simple as “The teacher entertained his students with a humorous lecture.” Consider the several propositions that actually underlie your sentence. Then consider “ladder of abstraction” possibilities that are both more abstract and more precise options for each word in your sentence. (This will cause you to think about the sentence’s paradigmatic axis.) And, finally, consider how you might rearrange the words and/or underlying propositions of your sentence. (This will cause you to think about the sentence’s syntagmatic axis—or syntax.) For example, the sentence I suggested above might be reconsidered with changes to both axes to read: “Captivating his English majors, the professor delivered a hilarious lecture.”

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Plume; Great Courses edition (June 25, 2013)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0452298601
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0452298606
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 0.61 x 7.98 inches
• #192 in Words, Language & Grammar Reference
• #244 in Writing Skill Reference (Books)
• #414 in Fiction Writing Reference (Books)

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Reading Sentence Stems

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Age range: 7-11

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20 May 2021

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10 books to add to your reading list in June

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Critic Bethanne Patrick recommends 10 promising titles, fiction and nonfiction, to consider for your June reading list.

With books tied to historical anniversaries and about two driven women, June offers powerful perspectives on what and how we remember. Novelists engage with societal shunning, the ghosts of ancestors and beachside grief; nonfiction writers with overturned case law, misplaced aspirations and reclaiming the legacy of a brilliant comic.

For the record:

11:59 a.m. June 4, 2024 A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that “Devil Is Fine” was John Vercher’s second novel. It is his third. The previous version also misstated the date of D-Day. It was June 6, 1944, not June 4.

The Future Was Color: A Novel By Patrick Nathan Counterpoint: 224 pages, $26 (June 4)

Nathan employs the timeless “a stranger comes to town” plot, as a gay Hungarian Jew named George Curtis gets invited to a chic Malibu house for a 1950s Hollywood heyday. However, George’s backstory in Manhattan and future in Paris bookend that bacchanalia and show how dark the shadow of McCarthyism and its “Lavender Scare” loomed over queer society — as other paranoias of the day did over other people, reminding readers that things have not changed enough.

Godwin By Joseph O’Neill Pantheon: 288 pages, $28 (June 4)

From “Netherland” to “The Dog” and now in “Godwin,” O’Neill has evinced strong interests in team sports (cricket, soccer) and colonialism (in Dubai, and Africa broadly). As protagonist Mark Wolfe, recently disgraced at work in Pittsburgh, tries to help his half sibling track down an African soccer star (the titular Godwin), the mordant humor and keen observations of late-stage capitalism give lift to the theme of how and where and when we support each other.

Tiananmen Square: A Novel By Lai Wen Spiegel & Grau: 528 pages, $22 (June 4)

June 4 marks the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The pseudonymous Lai Wen’s fictional account of her upbringing under communism and the friendships she forged as a student offers an important window into what spurred the Chinese student protests that ended in violence. Despite knowing the outcome, readers will be riveted by the author’s thoughtful, moving narrative of coming to political consciousness in a time of danger.

Sandwich: A Novel By Catherine Newman Harper: 240 pages, $27 (June 18)

With the pacing of a thriller, observations akin to poetry and real-life conflict like memoir, Newman’s novel about one family’s week on Cape Cod should find a place in your beach bag, even if your own summer vacation is in Bali. The menopausal Rocky, her husband, their two grown children (along with one’s partner), and her aged parents enjoy time-honored traditions but also have to figure out how to negotiate time’s changes on all of them.

Devil Is Fine: A Novel By John Vercher Celadon Books: 272 pages, $29 (June 18)

Vercher’s third novel provides a startling perspective, even darker than “American Fiction,” on what it means to be a person of color operating within our nation’s book-publishing industry. As the unnamed narrator copes with parenting a teenage son, he receives an unexpected inheritance from his white mother’s family that triggers tragic visions — and allows him to at last untangle his feelings about his own identity.

Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius By Carrie Courogen SMP: 400 pages, $30 (June 4)

The 92-year-old Elaine May does exist, and Carrie Courogen’s biography of May shows her long and vibrant career — and how her particular talent for comedy writing was ignored by too many of her contemporaries. Despite her stellar, groundbreaking work with Mike Nichols, May didn’t experience career liftoff until her 50s, when she became known as a script fixer. Today, her commitment to creative control sounds an important note for women in media.

The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America By Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer Flatiron Books: 448 pages, $33 (June 4)

The subtitle of this new book by New York Times reporters Dias (religion) and Lerer (politics) underscores how the conservative religious faction’s far-reaching and secretive strategy of putting anti-abortion activists in the spotlight changed rights for Americans in June 2022. As the authors warn, if Democrats don’t change their own strategy, we might see an entirely different nation emerge because of a single issue.

Ambition Monster: A Memoir By Jennifer Romolini Atria: 304 pages, $29 (June 4)

Host of the “Everything Is Fine” podcast and author of “Weird in a World That’s Not,” Romolini here focuses on her own difficult upbringing and (at least early on) dysfunctional relationship with achievement and its signals, from corner office to substantial salary. Even after she earned all of those, she wasn’t fulfilled. This highly personal narrative documents how the author detached from her inner fears to find a more authentic path.

When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day By Garrett M. Graff Avid Reader Press: 608 pages, $33 (June 4)

June 6 marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy, and Graff’s collection of 700 participants’ stories provides a compelling window into the kind of military maneuvers few living Americans can remember. The surprise landing of over 150,000 Allied troops on French beaches led to the eventual defeat of the Axis powers. Reading about survivors’ experiences in their own words proves a solemn practice.

The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir By Griffin Dunne Penguin Press: 400 pages, $30 (June 11)

Griffin Dunne has spent a lifetime surrounded by brilliant writers: his father, Dominick Dunne; his uncle and aunt, John Gregory Dunne and his wife Joan Didion; and his brother, Alex Dunne. Griffin Dunne is also a noted actor/director/producer. Perhaps the literary talent shown in his heartwrenching memoir shouldn’t be a surprise. Still, his deeply felt account of his sister Dominique’s 1982 murder, which opens the book, startles with its honesty, spareness and elegant structure.

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75 Best Children's Books for Kindergarten Kids

Reading to children is crucial in preparing them for kindergarten. It helps develop vocabulary, language skills, and comprehension abilities. Reading also enhances concentration, stimulates imagination, and nurtures a lifelong love for books. Furthermore, it introduces children to the structure of stories, helps them recognize letters and words, and fosters listening skills and memory. Early exposure to reading sets the foundation for academic success and cognitive development for Kindergarten students and beyond!

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on the 100 must-read books for kindergarten students! As parents and educators, we understand the crucial role early literacy plays in a child's development. Reading not only enhances vocabulary and comprehension skills but also sparks imagination, fosters emotional growth, and creates lasting bonds between children and adults. With so many wonderful books out there, selecting the best ones for your kindergarteners can be overwhelming. That's why we've curated this list of timeless classics and modern favorites that are perfect for young readers. Dive into this treasure trove of stories and watch your child's love for reading blossom!

Children are often drawn to the same book repeatedly because of the comfort and familiar topics it provides for kindergarten kids and younger. Repeated readings help them master the content, boosting their confidence and sense of accomplishment.  It is completely normal for a child's interest to drive the repetition of reading a book with beloved characters.

Familiar stories and characters create a sense of security, and the predictability of the narrative allows children to anticipate what happens next, enhancing their comprehension and enjoyment. Additionally, repetitive exposure reinforces language patterns, vocabulary, and phonemic awareness, contributing to their literacy development. The emotional connection to favorite stories also plays a significant role, as children often find joy and reassurance in the consistent, predictable world of a beloved book.

Concepts of Early Readers / Emerging Readers

Kindergarten teachers use a variety of strategies to teach early reading skills, focusing on building a strong foundation in literacy. Here are some common methods and techniques they employ for working on strengthening Kindergarten reading level through popular series, guided reading levels, non-fiction books and a wide range of books to find books that are engaging.

1. Phonemic Awareness

Activities : Clapping syllables, playing rhyming games, and identifying beginning and ending sounds in words.

Goal : Helps young readers understand that words are made up of individual sounds (phonemes).

2. Phonics Skills

Instruction : Teaching the relationship between letters and their sounds to young students.

Activities : Letter-sound matching games, using phonics worksheets, and guided reading sessions.

Goal : Enable children to decode (sound out) simple words.

3. Sight Words

Focus : Recognizing common words by sight to build reading fluency in Kindergarten children.

Activities : Flashcards, word walls, and repetitive reading of simple books.

Goal : Improve reading speed and confidence by memorizing frequently used words.

4. Reading Aloud

Approach : You will see Kindergarten teacher read books aloud to the class, modeling fluent reading.

Techniques : Using expressive voices, pausing to ask questions, and encouraging predictions.

Goal : Develop listening comprehension, vocabulary, and a love for reading.

5. Shared Reading

Method : Reading a big book or a text on a projector where students can see the words.

Activities : Group discussions about the text, pointing to words while reading, and choral reading (reading together as a class).

Goal : Engage children in the reading process and teach concepts of print (like reading left to right).

6. Guided Reading Groups

Setup : Small group instruction tailored to each child's reading and skill level.

Activities : Reading leveled books with teacher support, discussing the text, and practicing reading strategies.

Goal : Provide individualized support to develop reading skills.

7. Interactive Writing

Process : Teachers and students write together, sharing the pen.

Activities : Writing stories, sentences, or lists on chart paper.

Goal : Teach letter formation, spelling, and the writing process.

8. Independent Reading

Encouragement : Providing access to a variety of books in a classroom library.

Activities : Designated quiet reading time where children choose their own books.

Goal : Foster a love for reading and allow little readers to practice reading independently.

9. Literacy Centers

Setup : Stations with different literacy activities that children rotate through.

Activities : Phonics games, word puzzles, listening to audiobooks, and writing centers.

Goal : Provide hands-on practice and reinforce skills through engaging activities.

10. Vocabulary Building

Focus : Expanding children's vocabulary through direct instruction and exposure.

Activities : Introducing new words during read-alouds, word-of-the-day activities, and thematic units.

Goal : Enhance comprehension and expressive language.

Do not get too stressed by the grade level or reading books level - find books that are engaging for your emergent reader.  Do a mix of independent reading, group reading, and read alouds and get a feel for what picture books or chapter books are most interesting. 

75 Best Read Aloud Fun Books for Confident Readers

These best seller read-aloud books are classic popular books that you likely grew up reading and will love sharing with your students and children.  The goal is to make reading fun so early readers will continue their love of good books forever.

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"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle

A caterpillar eats through various foods before becoming a butterfly. Teaches counting, days of the week, and metamorphosis.

"Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown

A soothing bedtime story where a little bunny says goodnight to various objects in his room. Encourages a calming bedtime routine.

"Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak

Max's imaginative journey to an island of wild creatures. Emphasizes imagination and emotions.

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle

A repetitive and rhythmic book that introduces colors and animals. Enhances memorization and prediction skills.

"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

An alphabet adventure where letters race up a coconut tree. Teaches the alphabet in a fun, rhythmic way.

"If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff

A story about the chain reaction of events that happens when you give a mouse a cookie. Highlights cause and effect.

"Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss

A whimsical tale encouraging children to try new things. Develops rhyming and simple word recognition.

"The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss

The mischievous Cat brings chaos and fun on a rainy day. Stimulates imagination and creativity with familiar words and repetition.

"Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" by Mo Willems

A pigeon tries to persuade readers to let him drive a bus. Interactive and teaches decision-making.

"We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury

A family's adventurous quest to find a bear. Repetitive phrases and onomatopoeia make it engaging.

"Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney

Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare express their love for each other. Teaches about expressing emotions.

"The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats

A boy's exploration of the snow-covered world. Celebrates discovery and simple pleasures.

"Llama Llama Red Pajama" by Anna Dewdney

Llama Llama's bedtime routine and anxieties. Comforts children about bedtime separation.

"Corduroy" by Don Freeman

A teddy bear's adventures in a department store. Highlights themes of friendship and acceptance.

"Room on the Broom" by Julia Donaldson

A witch and her cat make room for new friends on their broomstick. Encourages teamwork and kindness.

"Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes" by James Dean and Eric Litwin

Pete's white shoes change colors as he steps in different substances. Teaches colors and resilience.

"Harold and the Purple Crayon" by Crockett Johnson

Harold creates his world with a purple crayon. Encourages creativity and problem-solving.

"Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey

A family of ducks finds a home in the city. Shows the importance of family and community.

"Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees

A giraffe finds his own rhythm. Promotes self-confidence and individuality.

"The Mitten" by Jan Brett

Various animals seek warmth in a lost mitten. Illustrates sharing and the sequence of events.

"Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans

The adventures of a brave little girl in Paris. Celebrates bravery and adventure.

"Olivia" by Ian Falconer

The adventures of a spirited pig. Encourages creativity and individuality.

"Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type" by Doreen Cronin

Cows use a typewriter to make demands. Introduces negotiation and problem-solving.

"Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale" by Mo Willems

A girl loses her beloved stuffed animal. Shows the importance of communication and family support.

"The Little Engine That Could" by Watty Piper

A determined little engine overcomes obstacles. Teaches perseverance and optimism.

"Each Peach Pear Plum" by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

A rhyming, seek-and-find book featuring nursery rhyme characters. Enhances observational skills and rhyming.

"The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt

Crayons write letters of complaint to their owner. Encourages empathy and understanding different perspectives.

"I Want My Hat Back" by Jon Klassen

A bear looks for his lost hat. Introduces mystery and humor.

"Bear Snores On" by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

Animals gather in a little bear den while he sleeps. Teaches about hibernation and friendship.

"No, David!" by David Shannon

David's mischievous antics and his mother's responses. Highlights behavior and boundaries.

"The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn

A raccoon receives a comforting kiss from his mother. Eases separation anxiety.

"Swimmy" by Leo Lionni

A little fish finds a way to protect his friends. Teaches teamwork and creativity.

"Julius, the Baby of the World" by Kevin Henkes

A mouse adjusts to a new sibling. Addresses sibling rivalry and acceptance.

"Duck on a Bike" by David Shannon

A duck's adventure riding a bike. Encourages trying new things and adventure.

"Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst

Alexander's bad day and how he copes. Teaches resilience and that everyone has bad days.

"The Runaway Bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown

A mother's love follows her runaway bunny. Highlights unconditional love.

"Dragons Love Tacos" by Adam Rubin

Dragons' love for tacos and the trouble with spicy salsa. Entertains and teaches about preferences.

"Big Red Barn" by Margaret Wise Brown

The peaceful life of animals in a barn. Offers a calming, rhythmic story.

"Leo the Late Bloomer" by Robert Kraus

A tiger cub develops skills at his own pace. Encourages patience and understanding of individual growth.

"The Napping House" by Audrey Wood

A cumulative tale of a napping household. Enhances memory and sequence understanding.

"Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon

A baby bat learns to embrace her differences. Promotes acceptance and understanding.

"Gossie" by Olivier Dunrea

A gosling who loves her red boots. Introduces themes of independence and attachment.

"Planting a Rainbow" by Lois Ehlert

A mother and child plant a garden. Teaches colors and the process of planting.

"How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?" by Jane Yolen

Dinosaurs' bedtime routines. Encourages positive bedtime behaviors.

"Snowmen at Night" by Caralyn Buehner

Snowmen's nocturnal adventures. Stimulates imagination and creativity.

"The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf

A gentle bull prefers smelling flowers to fighting. Promotes peace and individuality.

"Elmer" by David McKee

A colorful elephant learns about being different. Teaches diversity and self-acceptance.

"Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes" by Mem Fox

Celebrates babies from around the world. Highlights diversity and common humanity.

"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss

A rhyming exploration of fun creatures. Enhances imagination and rhyming skills.

"Whistle for Willie" by Ezra Jack Keats

A boy learns to whistle for his dog. Teaches perseverance and practice.

"The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton

A house in the country changes over time. Introduces change and history.

"The Paper Bag Princess" by Robert Munsch

A princess rescues herself and her prince. Promotes independence and resourcefulness.

"The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss

A boy's faith in growing a carrot. Teaches patience and belief in oneself.

"The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter

A mischievous rabbit's garden adventure. Emphasizes consequences and curiosity.

"Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman

A baby bird searches for his mother. Highlights persistence and identity.

"The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister

A fish learns to share his shimmering scales. Teaches sharing and generosity.

"Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse" by Leo Lionni

A mouse wishes to be a toy. Explores friendship and envy.

"Blueberries for Sal" by Robert McCloskey

A child and a bear cub get mixed up while picking blueberries. Emphasizes family and nature.

"Freight Train" by Donald Crews

A colorful train's journey. Teaches colors and motion.

"Harry the Dirty Dog" by Gene Zion

A dog dislikes baths and gets dirty. Explores themes of identity and acceptance.

"The Pout-Pout Fish" by Deborah Diesen

A gloomy fish learns to smile. Promotes positivity and emotional awareness.

"Good Night, Gorilla" by Peggy Rathmann

A sneaky gorilla escapes his cage. Encourages observation and humor.

"Llama Llama Mad at Mama" by Anna Dewdney

Llama Llama's frustration with shopping. Validates emotions and coping mechanisms.

"How to Catch a Star" by Oliver Jeffers

A boy's quest to catch a star. Encourages dreaming and determination.

"Owl Moon" by Jane Yolen

A child's nighttime adventure with their father. Celebrates nature and bonding.

"Mr. Tiger Goes Wild" by Peter Brown

A tiger breaks free from societal norms. Promotes self-expression and authenticity.

"The Gruffalo" by Julia Donaldson

A mouse outwits predators with tales of a Gruffalo. Teaches cleverness and courage.

"The Monster at the End of This Book" by Jon Stone

Grover worries about the monster at the end of the book. Introduces suspense and self-awareness.

"Is Your Mama a Llama?" by Deborah Guarino

A baby llama questions other animals about their mothers. Teaches rhyme and animal recognition.

"Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes" by James Dean and Eric Litwin

Pete's adventures in school. Eases school anxiety and promotes a positive attitude.

"There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" by Simms Taback

A cumulative tale of an old lady swallowing various animals. Enhances memory and sequencing.

"The Wheels on the Bus" by Paul O. Zelinsky

A classic song brought to life with illustrations. Encourages singing and interaction.

"The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein

A tree's selfless love for a boy. Teaches generosity and unconditional love.

"Little Blue Truck" by Alice Schertle

A friendly truck helps others. Promotes kindness and teamwork.

"Bear Wants More" by Karma Wilson

Bear's friends help him find food after hibernation. Emphasizes friendship and sharing.

If you want to really work on independent readers and their ability to read leveled readers, these recommendations will be so helpful for classroom or home. Have students work on writing simple sentences after reading any of these best books as a great addition to learning!  Parents and students will be so proud of the immense progress made from beginning of the year to the end with their Kindergarten readers.

Reading these books to children not only prepares them for the academic challenges of kindergarten but also fosters a love for reading that can last a lifetime. These stories introduce fundamental concepts, promote emotional intelligence, and provide a platform for parents and children to bond over shared reading experiences.

We hope this carefully curated list of 100 must-read books has inspired you and provided valuable resources for fostering a love of reading in your kindergarten students. Each book on this list offers unique opportunities for learning, imagination, and bonding. By introducing these engaging stories, you'll not only support your child's literacy development but also create cherished memories that will last a lifetime. Happy reading, and may your journey through these wonderful books be filled with joy and discovery!

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Judge Orders Bannon to Surrender for Prison Term by July 1

The outspoken Trump ally was convicted two years ago of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee. He faces a four-month sentence.

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By Alan Feuer and Aishvarya Kavi

A federal judge on Thursday told Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to former President Donald J. Trump, to surrender by July 1 to start serving a four-month prison term for disobeying a congressional subpoena.

Mr. Bannon was sentenced in October 2022 on contempt of Congress charges after he refused to give testimony to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Judge Carl J. Nichols, who has overseen the case, allowed him to remain free while he appealed. Last month, however, Mr. Bannon lost the first round of that challenge as a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court in Washington decided that his guilty verdict on charges of ignoring the House committee’s demand for his testimony was proper.

Because of the panel’s ruling, Judge Nichols said he no longer believed that Mr. Bannon could rightfully continue to postpone serving his sentence.

“I do not feel my original basis for Mr. Bannon’s stay exists any longer,” he said.

Lawyers for Mr. Bannon have promised to ask the full appeals court to reconsider the panel’s decision. And Judge Nichols said that Mr. Bannon would have to start serving his sentence in less than four weeks unless the full appeals court took the case and issued its own ruling to pause the sentence from being enforced.

Judge Nichols’s decision seemed to catch Mr. Bannon’s lawyer, David Schoen, by surprise, and he approached the podium after it was issued and started arguing with the judge.

Judge Nichols dressed him down.

“One thing I think you need to learn as a lawyer is that when a judge has decided, you do not get up and yell at them,” the judge shot back.

During his brief trial two summers ago , Mr. Bannon was similarly defiant, contesting the charges that he had snubbed the House committee both inside and outside the courtroom. At one point, he delivered a speech promising to go “medieval” on the prosecutors who had brought the indictment against him.

After the hearing on Thursday, he remained recalcitrant, declaring that he would challenge his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Mr. Bannon sought to portray the case against him as an attack on Mr. Trump and his supporters.

“This is about shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grass-roots conservatives, shutting down President Trump,” he said, adding, “There’s nothing that can shut me up.”

Mr. Bannon’s legal travails could continue after — or even during — his stint in prison.

A couple of months after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress in Washington, state prosecutors in Manhattan accused him of misusing money he helped raise for a group backing Mr. Trump’s border wall. In his final hours in office in 2021, Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Bannon in a separate federal case that focused on similar accusations.

Mr. Bannon’s fraud trial is scheduled to take place later this year in the same Manhattan courthouse where Mr. Trump was recently convicted on charges of falsifying business record s to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his 2016 run for the presidency.

Another former aide to Mr. Trump is already serving a prison term for refusing to take part in the House committee’s wide-ranging investigation into Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election.

In March, Peter Navarro, who once worked as a trade adviser to Mr. Trump, reported to federal prison in Miami to begin serving his own four-month prison stint after a jury found him guilty of contempt of Congress for ignoring one of the committee’s subpoenas.

Alan Feuer covers extremism and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former President Donald J. Trump.  More about Alan Feuer

Aishvarya Kavi is based in the Washington bureau. More about Aishvarya Kavi

Watch CBS News

Is Trump going to prison? What to know about the possible sentence after his conviction

By Kaia Hubbard

Updated on: May 31, 2024 / 6:48 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — Former President  Donald Trump was found guilty  on all charges in his New York "hush money" trial on Thursday, and the judge overseeing the case will soon venture into uncharted territory to determine whether a former president should be imprisoned for a felony conviction for the first time.

Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence before the 2016 presidential election. The jury in Manhattan returned its guilty verdict after a trial that stretched six weeks and featured more than 20 witnesses. 

Each of the 34 felony charges carries up to a $5,000 fine and four-year prison sentence. But whether Trump will go to prison is another question — one that's up to the judge at sentencing.

When will Trump be sentenced?

The judge set a July 11 date for sentencing following the jury's verdict on Thursday. 

The timing is in line with similar white-collar felony cases, where sentencing often takes place anywhere from three to eight weeks after conviction, according to Dan Horwitz, a defense lawyer who formerly prosecuted white-collar cases for the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

The sentencing will happen four days before the start of the Republican National Convention.

What to expect from sentencing

The minimum sentence for falsifying business records in the first degree is zero, so Trump could receive probation or conditional discharge, a sentence of no jail or up to four years for each offense. Trump would likely be ordered to serve the prison time concurrently for each count, so up to four years, total. 

"The judge could sentence him to anything between zero and the max," Horwitz said. "So he could sentence him to a period of months in jail, he could sentence him to a period of weeks in jail, he could sentence him to a sentence where he is required, for example, to go to jail every weekend for a period of time and then serve the rest of the sentence on probation."

In an analysis of comparable cases brought by the Manhattan district attorney's office, Norm Eisen, who has written a book about Trump's 2020 election-related federal indictment and served as special counsel in the first impeachment of the former president, found that about 10% resulted in imprisonment. But the circumstances surrounding the case make any across-the-board comparison difficult. 

Trump could also be sentenced to home detention, where he would wear an ankle bracelet and be monitored rather than going to jail. Horwitz suggested that a home detention sentence, which walks a middle ground between no punishment and a stint in state prison, might be the most likely outcome. It would also satisfy Trump's unusual security and political situation. 

A home detention sentence would also make it possible for Trump to continue campaigning — albeit virtually — with the ability to hold news conferences and remain active on social media. Throughout the trial, Justice Juan Merchan stressed the importance of allowing Trump the ability to campaign and exercise his First Amendment rights as he seeks another term in the White House . But it's just part of the equation that the judge must weigh in his decision. 

In an interview on CNN after the verdict, Trump attorney Todd Blanche was asked if he expected prosecutors to seek jail time. "I have no idea," Blanche replied. "Look, there's there's a system in place that that where you rely on precedent, and somebody like President Trump should never, never face a jail sentence based on this conduct."

What will the judge consider in Trump's sentencing?

There are a number of factors that the court can take into consideration for sentencing, including the nature and extent of the conduct, who was hurt, whether there are victims, and acceptance of responsibility, Horwitz said. Trump has repeatedly denied any guilt in the case.

"Courts will credit a defendant who pleads guilty by accepting responsibility for their conduct, as opposed to not accepting responsibility going into trial and getting convicted," Horwitz added, saying that "the sentence after a trial because you didn't accept responsibility is more stringent than it would have otherwise been."

A defendant's conduct during the trial may also play a role, so Trump's repeated violation of Merchan's gag order may be a significant factor in his sentencing. During the trial, Trump was accused over a dozen times of violating a gag order preventing him from making public comments about likely witnesses, jurors, attorneys and court staff involved in the case. 

Trump's sentencing may also be complicated by the lifetime Secret Service protection that he's afforded as a former president. The issue came up during the trial, when the judge held Trump in contempt for violating a gag order . Though Trump faced multiple fines, the judge expressed that jailing Trump was "the last thing I want to do" because it would have disrupted the trial and presented challenges for the Secret Service agents tasked with protecting the former president. 

"Today's outcome has no bearing on the manner in which the United States Secret Service carries out its protective mission," the Secret Service said in a statement provided to CBS News following the verdict. "Our security measures will proceed unchanged."  

Trump's imprisonment would likely need to include a rotation of Secret Service officers, and he would need to be isolated from other inmates. The former president's food and personal items would likely need to be screened for his protection, among other logistical considerations. 

"For all settings around the world, we study locations and develop comprehensive and layered protective models that incorporate state of the art technology, protective intelligence and advanced security tactics to safeguard our protectees," Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service's chief of communications, said before the verdict. 

No U.S. prison has ever previously had to deal with the possible imprisonment of a former president. Horwitz said there are mechanisms for inmates in protective custody at state correctional facilities and jails, but how the process would actually work remains to be seen. 

After Trump's conviction on Thursday, the Secret Service said in a new statement that "today's outcome has no bearing on the manner in which the United States Secret Service carries out its protective mission. Our security measures will proceed unchanged." 

Where could Trump be imprisoned?

Should Trump be sentenced to a period of home detention, the former president could carry out the sentence outside of New York, for instance, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where New York state would coordinate with Florida's probation department, which would monitor Trump's confinement, Horwitz said. 

In the event that Trump is sentenced to jail time, the location would depend on the duration of his sentence.

If Trump faces more than one year in jail, New York law requires that his sentence be served in a New York penal facility. But if his sentence is shorter than a year, it would be served in a New York City correctional facility, such as Rikers Island. 

What comes next? 

Trump could seek to stay the execution of any sentence pending appeal, meaning that he wouldn't have to start serving the sentence until an appeals court makes a decision, which is not uncommon in white collar cases in New York federal courts, Horwitz said. The move could delay any jail time until the election — or even beyond.

In any case, though possible imprisonment raises some hurdles for Trump's presidential campaign, his conviction does not restrict him from continuing to run — even if he's behind bars.

Olivia Rinaldi and Jake Rosen contributed reporting.

• Donald Trump

Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.

More from CBS News

DNC to unveil new billboard calling Trump a "convicted felon"

Trump asks to have gag order lifted in New York criminal trial

Steve Bannon ordered to report to prison July 1 in contempt of Congress case

Trump's New York conviction extends losing streak with jurors to 0-42

Bill Gates is right. ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’ has value beyond the court.

W. Timothy Gallwey’s book, originally published in 1974, continues to offer wisdom for life, on and off the court.

For most of my life, basketball was my game, not tennis. I preferred scrappy competition in an atmosphere of honest sweat, not in starchy white shorts and an aura of country-club cologne.

Still, decades ago, a neighbor kept insisting that I try tennis, and to entice me, he invited me to practice on his private court. He said that if I got good enough to hold my own against him in a match, he’d let me use the court — and his swimming pool — whenever I wanted. Although 25 years my senior, the guy looked fit and eager. For all I knew, he might have been a former pro.

Undaunted, my wife and I bought $10 rackets with plastic strings and leatherette hand grips and began batting balls back and forth. My neighbor offered no instruction, not even the commonplace mantra: “Keep your eye on the ball! Bend your knees!” He did, however, give me a book — not a conventional how-to manual, more a Zen compendium of suggestions for accessing the tennis talent that resided within me. “ The Inner Game of Tennis ,” by W. Timothy Gallwey, published in 1974, sparkled with concepts that seemed to be as old as Emerson — as in Ralph Waldo, not Roy. “Do the thing and you shall have the power” was its underlying premise.

My friend’s court, lodged like a jewel in a copse of oleanders and cypress trees in the south of France, was a perfect spot for beginners. Its gritty surface guaranteed a slow bounce that made every shot playable if you were ready to run. Loping around in my old Converse All Stars, I immediately loved the geometry and pace of tennis, and understood why so many writers were devoted to the sport. As I was 30, it was much too late for me to master picture-perfect groundstrokes.

But “The Inner Game of Tennis” convinced me that didn’t matter as long as I got every ball back across the net. In tennis parlance, I became a “pusher,” a craven retriever, a devotee of drop shots and lobs. Too ignorant to apologize, I was soon the nightmare of more experienced players, the kind of guy who wins with pure, or impure, intuition. My neighbor never complained, but one defeated opponent shook my hand at the net, snarling, “You make a beautiful game very ugly.” Later a teaching pro took one glance at my strokes and suggested, “Take two weeks off, then quit the sport.”

Still, the message of “The Inner Game” gave me faith. It convinced me that I only needed to get out of my own way and allow my autodidactic game free rein. For the next 50 years, Gallwey — a tennis star at Harvard and a coach who went on to write several other books about developing one’s “inner game” in sports and beyond — freed me to ignore the strictures of classic instruction and simply play singles three times a week. This isn’t to claim that I ever achieved more than a 4.0 U.S. Tennis Association rating. I was what the English called a “useful” club player. At my best, I could occasionally beat — or at least take a set from — a former Division 1 college player. To celebrate my 65th birthday, I humbled a local teaching pro 6-1, 7-6 — all because he lost his patience and refused to respect my improvisations.

It delights me now to read the 50th-anniversary edition of “The Inner Game of Tennis” and reacquaint myself with the brain-teasing koans with which Gallwey, now 86, shaped my unshapely game. Opening the book at any page, I rediscovered insights worth pondering.

♦ “The secret to winning any game lies in not trying too hard.”

♦ “All these skills are subsidiary to the master skill, without which nothing of value is ever achieved; the art of relaxed concentration.”

♦ “When we unlearn how to be judgmental, it’s possible to achieve spontaneous, focused play.”

♦ “Exercise no control; correct for no imagined bad habits. Simply trust your body to … toss the ball up, focus your attention on its seams, then let the serve serve itself.”

♦ “Once you learn how to learn you have only to discover what is worth learning.”

These words transport me back in time to that beautiful place in the south of France where, without fully realizing it, I was changing my life. Learning tennis was only part of it. Playing the game forged a deep friendship with my neighbor. It also persuaded me to alternate the writing of fiction with nonfiction books about the gritty reality of life on the pro tennis tour. Even at the highest level, where stark power rules, the inner game plays a role. As Vitas Gerulaitis told me, tennis is a game you have to be smart enough to play but dumb enough to think it matters.

Summer reading

In a foreword to the new anniversary edition, football coach Pete Carroll writes, “Developing this skill of supreme trust and focus has always been the aim of the inner game and the aim of my coaching.” Bill Gates adds in an introduction that Gallwey has influenced his work ethic. “Even though I stopped playing tennis in my 20s so I could focus on Microsoft,” the billionaire writes, “Gallwey’s insights subtly affected how I showed up at work. … For example, although I’m a big believer in being critical of myself and objective about my own performance, I try to do it the Gallwey way: in a constructive fashion that improves my performance.”

By comparison, the impact of “The Inner Game of Tennis” on me may seem minor. But please indulge the happiness of a hacker who has for half a century owed W. Timothy Gallwey a debt of gratitude.

Michael Mewshaw is the author of 23 books, four of them about professional tennis. His most recent book is “My Man in Antibes: Getting to Know Graham Greene.”

The Inner Game of Tennis (50th Anniversary Edition)

The Classic Guide to Peak Performance

by W. Timothy Gallwey. With an Introduction by Bill Gates and a Foreword by Pete Carroll

Random House. 192 pp. $28

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