An indispensable introduction to the evolution of Buddhist imagery from its origins in India through its spread to China, Japan, and South Asia. For more than 2,000 years, sublime works of art have been created to embody essential aspects of Buddhist thought, which developed and evolved as its practice spread from India to East Asia and beyond. How to Read Buddhist Art introduces this complex visual tradition to a general audience by examining sixty...

Investigates the art of reading by examining each aspect of reading, problems encountered, and tells how to combat them.

Architecture is all around us – it is part of our lives, and its development is a central theme in the history of mankind. Learning to read a building is the route to understanding a major part of our cultural inheritance. Collins Need to Know? How to Read a Building shows you how to analyse and interpret architectural features with confidence. Have you ever wanted to be able to tell the difference between tudor and mock-tudor? Want to learn what...

Suggests a method of reading that begins with planting oneself beneath a tree and leads to a book party one hopes will never end.

A New York Times bestseller—"Part ode, part how-to guide to the art of the well-constructed sentence" (NPR).
Some appreciate fine art; others appreciate fine wines. Stanley Fish appreciates fine sentences. The New York Times columnist and world-class professor has long been an aficionado of language. Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible...

"Renowned religion expert and Harvard Divinity School professor Harvey Cox deepens our experience of the Bible, revealing the three primary ways we read it, why each is important, and how we can integrate these approaches for a richer understanding and appreciation of key texts throughout the Old and New Testaments.The Bible is the heart of devotional practice, a source of guidance and inspiration rich with insightful life lessons. On the other side...

How to read a play is an introductory guide to the art of translating the printed page of a play or screenplay into dramatic mental images; this book includes a chapter about how to read a screenplay, noting the intrinisic differences between a screenplay and a playscript.

National book critic John Freeman pulls together his very best profiles (many of them new or completely rewritten for this volume) of the very best novelists of our time, including such international stars as Doris Lessing, Haruki Murakami, Salman Rushdie, and Mo Yan, to established American lions such as Don DeLillo, Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, Philip Roth, John Updike, and David Foster Wallace, to the new guard of Edwidge Danticat,...