Since “Inspiration” is (or should) the theme this week … what is your reading inspired by?
To a certain extent, it’s that line: “So many books, so little time.” Reading has been one of my favorite pastimes for as long as I can remember and there’s just so many books I want to read that I am inspired to pick up a book and read whenever possible. (He says as he recalls the four books added to the “to be read” shelf just this week.)
That doesn’t, though, really answer the core question, which is what is it about reading that so captures me. I think it’s a multiple of things. One is simple escapism. It doesn’t even have to be escapist literature. Even nonfiction can put me in another zone, outside of time and space. Of course, the book must be readable for that to happen.
Then there are the benefits of that zone. For nonfiction and even a lot of fiction, particularly world lit, I am learning something, whether consciously or subconsciously. Hopefully, I am also experiencing something or gaining an understanding of what someone else has experienced. Somewhat related, I can go to a place or time I’ve never been or can never go. And maybe that’s the ultimate point: the possibilities are limitless and offered anew each time you open and begin reading a book.
Reading has always been life unwrapped to me, a way of understanding the world and understanding myself through both the unknown and the everyday.
Anna Quindlen, NYT, Aug, 7, 1991
