The Real Reason that I Read

If I were being honest about most of my reading, I would have to admit that I could probably find something better to do with my time.  After all,

Reading is absurd, isn’t it? Page after page of symbols. Voices in our heads that aren’t our own. Why persist? (Dodge)

Nevertheless, I read daily and passionately.  I immerse myself in novels about werewolves and vampires, detectives and fantasy heroes.  I read about failed marriages and middle-aged women, young people on quests, people struggling to survive and people trying desperately to save someone they love. When I discover a new author, I track down every title available from my local library.  Wherever I go, books go with me, and I cannot imagine a life without reading.

Richard Peck explains this addiction wonderfully:

From novels we want a better life than we're having:  more adventurous, more dramatic, ultimately more hopeful because a novel is the life story of a survivor.  We can experience real life without reading (Peck ix).

Another author explained it this way:

“It’s that excitement of trying to discover that unknown world,” said Azar Nafisi, the author of “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” the best-selling memoir about a book group she led in Iran (Rich).

I could lie, and say that I read for self-improvement, to "light the single candle of [my]self" (Bloom), but the honest truth is that I read for pleasure.  Happiness for me is as simple as a good book, a glass of wine, and chocolate. 

I can even do without the wine and the chocolate, if I have my book!

Today's Links

Harold Bloom, Interview:  On Books, Like Ill Fortune

On the Pleasures (and Utility) of Summer Reading

Bibliography

Bloom, Harold. "How to Read." Presidential Lectures and Symposia in the Humanities and Arts. Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA. 18 May 1999. Lecture.

Dodge, Chris. "Why Read Books?" Utne Reader (2005). Utne Reader. Jan.-Feb. 2005. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. <http://www.utne.com/2005-01-01/WhyReadBooks.aspx>.

Peck, Richard. Introduction. Anonymously Yours: A Memoir by the Author of Ghosts I Have Been. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Simon & Schuster, 1991. Print.

Rich, Motoko. "A Good Mystery: Why We Read." New York Times. 25 Nov. 2007. Web. 12 Nov. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/weekinreview/25rich.html>.