"Barth's writing is as ebullient and welcoming as ever . . . This collection truly shines, however, when Barth focuses on his true passions: the craft of literature and the authors he has spent a lifetime reading, rereading, and admiring...Whatever legacy Barth may leave as a novelist, this collection confirms his position as one of the most enthusiastic readers and most important novelist-teachers of 20th-century letters."--Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Friday Book and Further Fridays

"There is no one else writing today who has the resources of Barth's imagination." --The New York Times Book Review

"A dilettante par excellence, Barth has read intelligently and indiscriminately enough to have something interesting to say at almost any time." --Kirkus

"A reader leaves The Friday Book feeling intellectually fuller, verbally more adept, mentally stimulated, with algebra and fire of his own." --The Washington Post

"The pieces brought together in The Friday Book reflect Mr. Barth's witty, playful, and engaging personality . . . They are lively, sometimes casual, and often whimsical--a delight to the reader, whom Mr. Barth seems to be writing or speaking as a learned friend." --The Kansas City Star