Benefits of reading

In her novel Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse, Faith Sullivan makes three statements about reading that may be worth a comment.

1. Reading is "the stuff of our salvation."

Salvation from what?, we may ask. Surely not in the sense that Christians talk about salvation. Sullivan's story itself seems to answer the question. Reading each night, for her main character, Nell Stillman, seems to bring salvation in the sense of a salve. It's something that calms the disturbances of the day. It relieves stress. It distracts. It pacifies. It settles the mind.

2. Books "were a cushion."

This suggests much the same thing. A good book is a soft place to land after a hard day. I do most of my reading in the afternoon, which is also when I take a nap. My mornings tend to be very busy, filled with chores and appointments. In the afternoon I need a cushion, both figuratively and literally.

3. "That was another thing about fiction: It could expand your humanity."

Nell spends virtually her entirely life in a small midwestern town. Yet she reads Chekhov, Steinbeck, Dickens, Austen and, of course, Wodehouse, along with many others. She is able to travel the world without leaving home. She gets to enter the minds of people very unlike herself. Their feelings become her feelings. She experiences their actions as if they were her own. Their dreams become hers.

An essay in the recent Oh Reader magazine carries a headline that expresses the same idea: "Reading Isn't Escapism — It's Extensionism." That may be a made-up word, but it is a good one. Reading can be a way to withdraw, at least for some, but mostly it extends our world in just the way Nell Stillman experiences it.