The reader of these essays will be pleased to find that they offer a rare mixture of good scholarship, good humor, and good common sense. Steven C. Scheer ranges over a wide variety of topics, drawn from his extensive knowledge of both literary and popular culture. Despite having impeccable academic credentials (Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University), Scheer writes with an unusual energy and enthusiasm about the people, the ideas, and the books that have drawn his attention. At a time when so much academic writing seems dull and "professionalized," Scheer's essays are reminiscent of the great tradition of cultural critique that included writers like Lionel Trilling and Edmund Wilson. - Carl A. Rapp, Emeritus Professor of English, University of Georgia, author of Fleeing the Universal: The Critique of Post-Rational Criticism Little masterpieces of rhetoric, these essays challenge our thinking about the art of reading and the fate of books. Scheer writes with gusto. When it comes to correcting stubbornly and erroneously held ideas, he takes no prisoners. He shines the light of unmistakable intelligence on the issues and texts he encounters in these remarkably well-written essays. They have a philosophical heft that makes them profound, but they also carry a light-hearted sense of what makes the world go round. Need I use the word "love"? What ultimately emerges from reading these fine and at times deftly elaborated essays is a sense of joy: the joy that may well bring to mind that old-fashioned aesthetic experience John Keats captured with two telling words: "truth" and "beauty." - Thomas A. Rivers, professor of English at the University of Southern Indiana, author of many essays in such journals as College English and The Quarterly Journal of Speech