I change books constantly-having so many to choose from throughout time and space-usually determining some sort of theme to our reading. Each semester, I have the opportunity to craft a reading list for my students, one that will delight and edify them. It turns out that teaching fulfills at least part of this fantasy. “Oh, you love Lord of the Rings? Well, have you tried Dr. Like Ira and Barry from City Slickers, who could find the right ice cream flavor for every meal, I would concoct the most fitting story for each reader. I could spend every day helping people find the book they wanted. When I was young, I thought working in a bookstore would be the perfect job for me. ![]() We transcend being merely thinking machines or gluttonous beasts but transform into creative creatures who love, give, and are nourished by beauty. To read is to become a seraphim, a polyglot, a beneficent hydra. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with myriad eyes, yet it is still I who see.” As Lewis also famously attested, “In reading I become a thousand and yet remain myself. How meager to face all the various hardships and gray moral areas with only our limited vision of the world! We need the eyes of Odysseus, Wordsworth, Nietzsche, and Toni Morrison. We would be emaciated souls should we manage the adventure of life with only one set of eyes. When we worry over the seemingly limitless reach of government’s power, perhaps we turn again to Brave New World or Oryx and Crake. ![]() When we think of what it means to forgive, we recall To Kill a Mockingbird or The Color Purple. Darcy overcomes his pride and saves Lydia Bennett from a life of exile. We remember the exaltation when Harry Potter plunges the Gryffindor sword through the Basilisk’s head. We’ve heard it from teachers we’ve read the apologies for reading online, but more so, we have felt them ourselves. To find time to read is to win a battle against the cotton-candy pleasure of binge watching, against the litany of emails and projects and never-ending tasks of our work, against the monotony of Facebook posts and Twitter messages.įirst, we all know that reading makes us better. These are easy arguments for a bibliophile to make, and most people will not deny these truths they just don’t live according to them.
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