""From Toni Morrison to Ray Bradbury, Practical Classics is a refreshing and necessary call to reading. A quirky and thoughtful guide, I’d pretty much follow Kevin Smokler anywhere in the library. (And I’m willing to forgive him for what he says about The Scarlet Letter because of his wonderful essay on another beloved book, The Phantom Toll Booth.) He makes it fun, as it should be.” - Peter Orner, author of Love and Shame and Love “Smokler’s book is fascinating, relevant - and has completely wrecked my schedule for the next several months. After reading his sharp insights on all these classics, I feel inspired to read them again. Or for the first time, in some cases . . . in a lot of cases.” - A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically “Whether we’re rereading or reading for the first time (go ahead, admit it!), Kevin Smokler’s smart, funny, down-to-earth book is a marvelous guide to some of literature’s greatest works and their power to instruct. Practical Classics belongs in every reader’s library as a reminder to turn off reality television and fill our minds instead with these indelible characters who have so much to teach us. What a gift.” - Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion “With Practical Classics, Kevin Smokler has done at least four remarkable things at once: he’s given curious adult readers a path into the old English-class canon; he’s updated that canon with a host of titles that will surprise you; he’s wrapped it all up in a crisp, concise, random-access format perfectly suited to the twenty-first century; and, best of all, he’s made these fifty books feel fresh and urgent and new again.” - Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore “Smokler has gone back to your youth so you won’t have to - finding delight in rereading old assignments as an adult. An indispensable act of literary kindness.” - Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli