The right book at the right time

But just because you know that you can find anything you need in a book doesn't mean you can easily find your way to the right book at the right time, the one that tells you what you need to know or feel when you need to know or feel it.

Will Schwalbe, Books for Living

Almost any book can teach us something, even if what it teaches us is to avoid that particular author in the future. Will Schwalbe identifies lessons learned from a wide assortment of books in Books for Living. And what a wide assortment it is. There are classic books (David Copperfield), best-sellers (The Girl on the Train), obscure books (Zen in the Art of Archery), children's books (Stuart Little) and even a cookbook (The Taste of Country Cooking).

The lessons learned are equally varied. From Reading Lolita in Tehran he learns about choosing the life one wants to lead. From A Little Life he learns the value of a good hug. From What I Talk About When I Talk About Running he learns about the importance of a nap. From Bartleby, the Scrivener he learns not to never give up but rather that sometimes quitting can be the best option.

In each chapter he delves into his own past, as well as into the book that is the focus of that chapter, what it's about, how the author came to write it and, of course, how it taught him the lesson he needed at that particular time in his life. He recognizes that other readers will discover other lessons at different times. The best books have an endless number of lessons for an endless number of readers.

Schwalbe's book has a lesson for me: Pay more attention to what each book is saying. The right book at the right time means nothing if one is not alert for the lessons hiding in its pages.