How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a short book on how much reading matters to Anna Quindlen. She talks about growing up a bookworm and how she loves af physical book way more than an ebook. She also provides some interesting book lists, such as “Ten Books you are Likely to find in a Summer Rental”. While I enjoyed her exposition on reading as a hobby and lifelong interest, I found the manner she dissed ebooks a little overbearing, as though anything short of holding printed paper diminishes the joy of reading.
However, I enjoyed how she talks about what other authors talk about reading, and I found two quotes especially close to heart.
“Readings makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but, most important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” — Hazel Rochman
“There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any coursers like a Page
of prancing Poetry” — Emily Dickinson
I was planning to write a post on Why I Read, and I thought this book served as a good way for me to reflect on my reading life. As for stimuli go, text never fail me. Perhaps it’s its enduring quality and also it being static. I can decide how slow, or how fast I want to read. Boring section? Skip it. There’s nothing more empowering (apart from fast-forwarding through commercials on TV) than that. It doesn’t matter to me anymore what form the text takes; before I dived into the realm of ebooks and ebook reading devices, I too thought I cannot give up the physicality of printed books, thinking that fondling yellowed (or not) pages serve as an extra source of stimulus for me. I slowly discovered that’s not the case; it’s really content that matters. Like the Rochman and Dickinson quotes above say, it’s really the WHAT in book that take me away from where I am, not the way a book looks. Also, and because now I can read e-books on my cellphone (iPhone powered with Kobo app and NLB Overdrive), I always have access to, let’s conservatively estimate – 5 unread books with me. Waiting for a friend? Read a book. Waiting for a bus? Read a book. On the bus? Look out the window (motion sickness lah.) You get my idea. I love how technology makes space irrelevant, and that’s how I roll.
[...] Previously (more than 3 months ago) I mentioned I am planning a post on Why I Read, but I never really got down to writing it. In that 3 months that transpired I was occupied with completing my thesis and job-hunting, and eventually starting work as a librarian. I know, hardly good enough excuses. However, since I started work, I’ve been thinking more and more about why I read, why people read, things along those lines. I don’t want to talk about my work in specific here; let’s just say it’s nothing short of awesome to me. That’s why I decided to come back and write this post on my personal history of reading, and why I continue doing so. [...]