WHY WE SHOULD READ. I love the Wall Street Journal (for a host of reasons), but their tight firewall only allows subscribers to access the full text of an article. So I’m going to quote from the lead essay in the November 26-27 Review section. It’s by Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club, and is entitled, “The Need to Read.” I think it’s excellent.
“Books are uniquely suited to helping us change our relationship to the rhythms and habits of daily life in this world of endless connectivity. We can’t interrupt books; we can only interrupt ourselves while reading them. They are the expression of an individual or group of individuals, not of a hive mind or collective consciousness. They speak to us, thoughtfully, one at a time. They demand our attention. And they demand that we briefly put aside our own beliefs and prejudices and listen to someone else’s. You can rant against a book, scribble in the margin or even chuck it out the window. Still, you won’t change the words on the page.”
And after providing examples of books that have influenced him or changed his mind or made him wiser from Stuart Little to The Odyssey to Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea to Reading Lolita in Tehran, Mr. Schwalbe salutes the power of reading:
“Books remain one of the strongest bulwarks we have against tyranny—but only as long as people are free to read all different kinds of books, and only as long as they actually do so. The right to read whatever you want whenever you want is one of the fundamental rights that helps us preserve all the other rights. It’s a right we need to guard with unwavering diligence. But it’s also a right we can guard with pleasure. Reading isn’t just a strike against narrowness, mind control and domination: It’s one of the world’s great joys.”
In these somewhat unsettled times, his words resonate with me.
BOOK LIST FROM MY BLOG
And here, in time for your holiday shopping should you choose, is the list of books I’ve mentioned in the blog since June.
Buruma, Ian Their Promised Land (biography, July)
Belfer, Lauren And After the Fire (novel, June)
Brower, Kate A. First Women:…First Ladies (biography, June)
Gyasi, Yaa Homegoing (novel, June)
Lewis, Sinclair Main Street (novel, June)
Purnell, Sonia Clementine (biography, June)
Cambor, Kathleen In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden (novel, July)
Church, Elizabeth J. The Atomic Weight of Love (novel, July)
Cooper, Anderson The Rainbow Comes & Goes (nonfiction, July)
Delinsky, Barbara Blueprints (novel, July)
Doiron, Paul The Poacher’s Son (mystery, July)
McCoy, Sarah The Mapmaker’s Children (novel, July)
Simonson, Helen The Summer Before the War (novel, July)
Smith, Dominic The Last Painting of Sara de Vos (novel, July)
Cleave, Chris Everyone Brave is Forgiven (novel, July)
Haigh, Jennifer Heat & Light (novel, Aug.)
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men (novel, Aug.)
McCann, Colum Dancer (novel, Aug.)
George, Elizabeth Believing the Lie (mystery, Aug.)
Thompson, Victoria Murder in Chelsea (mystery, Aug.)
Cleve, Chris Everyone Brave is Forgiven (novel, Aug.)
Erdrich, Louise LaRose (novel, Aug.)
Donati, Sara The Gilded Hour (novel, Sept.)
Sweeney, Cynthia The Nest (novel, Sept.)
Haruf, Kent Our Souls at Night (novel, Sept.)
Carr, David Night of the Gun (memoir, Oct.)
Harrod-Eagles, C. Orchestrated Death (mystery, Oct.)
Hadley, Tessa The Past (novel, Oct.)
Goodwin, Daisy Victoria (novel, Nov.)
Note: Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)
