Reading Comprehension in 20 Minutes a Day enhances your critical reading skills in just 20 short lessons. Learn to dissect a story, find the main idea, and draw conclusions through study of practical exercises. With passages from literature, essays, technical writing, and articles, this handy guide includes lessons with hundreds of exercises in test format to help you acquire or refresh essential reading comprehension skills.

Here is the riveting story of the English language, from its humble beginnings as a regional dialect to its current preeminence as the one global language, spoken by more than two billion people worldwide. In this groundbreaking book, Melvyn Bragg shows how English conquered the world. It is a magnificent adventure, full of jealousy, intrigue, and war-against a hoard of invaders, all armed with their own conquering languages, which bit by bit, the...

Shashi Tharoor is once again at his provocative best. In the title essay, we learn the steep price paid by some Iraqis just to obtain a book; what does it mean when selling books, essentially selling culture, out of one's own library is the only way to put bread on the table? Later, Tharoor reminisces about growing up with books in India and the central position of classics like the Mahabharata in developing his own literary identity. The poignant...

The author argues that reading is alive and well in America. Millions of devoted readers support hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Jacobs's interactions with his students and the readers of his own books, however, suggest that many readers lack confidence; they wonder whether they are reading well, with proper focus and attentiveness, with due discretion and discernment. Jacobs offers an insightful, accessible, and playfully...

Published with the American Library Association, Reading with the Stars uses the power of politicians, celebrities, and other prominent men and women to celebrate books, libraries, and reading. Fourteen of the biggest names in America offer their thoughts on why literature is important and how books have touched their lives. Television icon Oprah Winfrey discusses how library books were her "pass to personal freedom." Microsoft founder Bill Gates...