"In my experience when people once begin to read, they go on. They begin because they think they ought to and they go on because they must. Yes. They find it widens life. We're all greedy for life, you know, and our short span of existence can't give us all that we hunger for, the time is too short and our capacity not large enough. But in books we experience all life vicariously." From A City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge
I know this to be true in my own experience. Books have enlightened my mind when it was muddled. I've identified with characters in novels and felt less alone. Books take me away from my, sometimes, harried life and help me relax into other worlds. I've visited places in books where I'll never physically go, and I frequently revisit places for their warm familiarity.
Books are friends; sometimes even better. They have no expectations and can't see us. They give without asking anything in return, yet often I find myself being changed. A thought or an idea trails off from the page, and I must follow. It will often lead to deeper revelations as I follow the strand from book to book, chasing the gossamer thread until I grab hold, ingest, and make it my own. Oh yes, books have changed me.
8 comments:
Me too. I esp. love the thought that we can greatly expand our living experience -- kind of lengthen our years! -- by reading, by its mental traveling, by its delving into a fictional person's soul. The writers surely have gifted us!
I need to read A City of Bells! It sounds marvelous.
xofrances
I agree. There are often times I don't want a fairytale (book) to end.
Lovely post. Makes me want to read City of Bells.
I agree, problems can resolve themselves when you deeply engage with a book.
Debbie, that's a lovely quote and true. Books are friends and some I can visit time and time again.
I have worked or volunteered in libraries most of life. I love books too :)
Good books are like good friends... and some of my best friends on this journey I have only met through the written word.
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