Thomas C. Foster 2-pack - Thomas C. Foster

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

While books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings beneath the surface. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the practiced analytical eye-and the literary codes of a college professor.

What does it mean when a protagonist is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he's drenched in a sudden rain shower? Thomas C. Foster provides answers to these questions as he explores every aspect of fiction, from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form. Offering a broad overview of literature-a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower-he shows us how to make our reading experience more intellectually satisfying and fun.

The world, and curricula, have changed. This third edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect those changes.

How to Write Like a Writer

Combing anecdotes and hard-won lessons from decades of teaching and writing-and invoking everyone from Hemingway to your great-aunt-retired professor Thomas C. Foster guides you through the basics of writing. With How to Write Like a Writer, you'll learn how to organize your thoughts, construct first drafts, and (not incidentally) keep you in your chair so that inspiration can come to visit.

With warmth and wit, Foster shows you how to get into (and over) your best self, how to find your voice, and how to know when, if ever, a piece of work is done.

Packed with enlightening anecdotes, highlighted with lists and bullet points, this invaluable guide reveals how writers work their magic, and reminds us that we all-for better or worse, whether we mean to or not-are known by what we put on paper or screen.

Soft covers