Books to chew on

Sir Francis Bacon

Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.

Sir Francis Bacon

Sir Francis Bacon's food metaphor applied to the reading of books seems apt to me.

We taste new books in the same way we taste a new dish or a more familiar dish prepared in a new way. That first bite is small, taken cautiously. Is it any good? Will we like it? Will it satisfy? With some books, as with some foods, we never get past that first taste. Some readers rarely get beyond the first chapter or two. A taste is enough.

Just as there are comfort foods, so there are comfort books. We  seek out books by authors we know and who have pleased us in the past. These we devour. Unfamiliar authors make finicky readers uneasy, just as unfamiliar foods make finicky eaters uneasy.

The trouble with most of the books we devour is that they give us little to chew on. I love a good thriller as much as anyone else, but after the last chapter there is not much to think about. The thrill, quite literally, is gone. One fast-food burger is pretty much like the last one.

The books we can chew and digest thoroughly are the ones we read more slowly and can talk about, think about, perhaps even write about and then reread later with just as much pleasure, if not more, than the first time.