
Avid Reader
A Life
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Narrated by:
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Robert Gottlieb
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By:
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Robert Gottlieb
About this listen
A spirited and revealing memoir by the most celebrated editor of his time.
After editing The Columbia Review, staging plays at Cambridge, and a stint in the greeting-card department of Macy's, Robert Gottlieb stumbled into a job at Simon & Schuster. By the time he left to run Alfred A. Knopf a dozen years later, he was the editor in chief, having discovered and edited Catch-22 and The American Way of Death, among other best sellers. At Knopf, Gottlieb edited an astonishing list of authors, including Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, John le Carré, Michael Crichton, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Graham, Robert Caro, Nora Ephron, and Bill Clinton - not to mention Bruno Bettelheim and Miss Piggy.
In Avid Reader, Gottlieb writes with wit and candor about succeeding William Shawn as the editor of The New Yorker and the challenges and satisfactions of running America's preeminent magazine. Sixty years after joining Simon & Schuster, Gottlieb is still at it - editing, anthologizing, and, to his surprise, writing.
But this account of a life founded upon reading is about more than the arc of a singular career - one that also includes a lifelong involvement with the world of dance. It's about transcendent friendships and collaborations, "elective affinities" and family, psychoanalysis and Bakelite purses, the alchemical relationship between writer and editor, the glory days of publishing, and - always - the sheer exhilaration of work.
©2016 Robert Gottlieb (P)2016 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall
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Performance
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From two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and two-time National Book Award winner Robert A. Caro: a short, penetrating reflection on the evolution and workings of political power - for good and for ill.
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Overall
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Overall
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Story
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-
The Path to Power
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.
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-
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By: Robert A. Caro
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Garbo
- Her Life, Her Films
- By: Robert Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Maria Tucci
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Strikingly glamorous and famously inscrutable, Greta Garbo managed, in 16 short years, to infiltrate America’s subconscious; her decision to suddenly end her film career at the age of 36 only made her more irresistible. Garbo appeared in only 24 movies, yet her impact on the world was rivaled only by Marilyn Monroe. She was a phenomenon, a Sphinx, a myth, but also a Swedish peasant girl, uneducated, naïve, and always on her guard. Acclaimed critic and editor Robert Gottlieb attempts to capture the ever-elusive essence of Garbo through the eyes of others.
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Very good and very not good
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Overall
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From two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and two-time National Book Award winner Robert A. Caro: a short, penetrating reflection on the evolution and workings of political power - for good and for ill.
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Could be called 'On Robert Caro'
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- By: Robert A. Caro
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- Length: 66 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Robert Caro's monumental book makes public what few outsiders knew: that Robert Moses was the single most powerful man of his time in the City and in the State of New York. And in telling the Moses story, Caro both opens up to an unprecedented degree the way in which politics really happens—the way things really get done in America's City Halls and Statehouses—and brings to light a bonanza of vital information about such national figures as Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt (and the genesis of their blood feud), about Fiorello La Guardia, John V. Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller.
-
-
AMAZING read
- By jeff on 09-15-11
By: Robert A. Caro
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The Pigeon Tunnel
- Stories from My Life
- By: John le Carré
- Narrated by: John le Carré
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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- mark woldin
- 02-04-24
No anecdotes, too much encomium
A great editor who knew so many great writers and interesting people, but rather than delight us with anecdotes, he goes on and on about how charming they were. This won't do. a fine and delightful, a writer of a dull memoir.
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- Happy
- 01-12-17
What a Joy
Enjoyed every morsel. What a life. Thank you for writing this. Can't wait to read many of the titles.
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- Ralph Alswang
- 10-12-16
Lover of life
Gottlieb has open the door to his life as creative literary legend. Make time for the book and you will receive insights in publishing and literature that will open your mind to what is possible when you live life true to interests and passions.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Laura
- 04-22-24
A true memoir
I came to the realization that all memoirs or autobiographies should be audible, or at least have an audible version, so we can hear the earnestness and the heart beat of the author, without which I might not have appreciated this one so much.
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- james r jolley
- 05-20-20
AVID READER
Dedicated to process over produce, this man, who surprisingly finds himself to become a writer, after being an editor, catches the whole buzz. He met so many people who stimulated his life and shares it generously, like you are as important as any of whom he writes. So fine to encounter such a casual person with such strict inner discipline about a well-edited book. He also loves his writing subjects so has the joy of watching his pen lead him. A life of good fortune shared.
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- Anonymous User
- 04-10-24
Author’s. Humility.
Would have liked names repeated on Audible/ . If distracted for a second and miss name —. I am clueless on who s he talking about. I do not have capability of rewinding. Hands busy while ‘reading’.
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- Anthony
- 01-05-17
Great autobiography
Robert Gottlieb has lived an extraordinary life and I'm glad I got to hear him tell it to me. Autobiographies are not always improved by being read by the author but this time it certainly felt right.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Robbi Dickens
- 02-06-23
Loved it
If you like books, if you like the art of writing and editing, you love hearing about friendships and relationships, you will love this book. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the author read his story.
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- Marianne
- 10-02-16
Book addiction
Where does Avid Reader rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I have listened to so many wonderful books, but this is the story of a boy/man/person
who inhales books from an early age
What was one of the most memorable moments of Avid Reader?
Reading War and Peace in 14 hours
Which scene was your favorite?
Playing with a yoyo while standing outside his building after being ordered outside to play as a child
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
yes, but can't
Any additional comments?
This is the sort of book for people who devour books
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5 people found this helpful
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- Peggy Mason
- 02-11-23
Should’ve taken his own advice
There are some gems in here. But then one has to truly ponder why this great editor did not take his own advice. One obvious example is boring lists of names. I’m sure he would have x-ed them out in anyone else’s book. But somehow he tolerated them in his own book. Lots of name dropping. Encyclopedic over concise. And he has the hubris to think he can voice the book better than an actor. Doubtful. Should have left it to the voicing pros.
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