Thoughts on reading

Will Schwalbe

Will Schwalbe has much to say about the reading life and about books in general in Books for Living, which I reviewed last time. Below are some quotes from his book, followed by my own comments:

"People who write books generally read books, and most books carry withm traces of some of the hundreds or thousands of books the writer read before attempting the one at hand."

Schwalbe offers the example of British author Henry Green, little read today, who was a major influence on such writers as Sebastian Faulks, Anthony Burgess, Eudora Welty and John Updike.

My friend Steve Goble, author of the Spider John murder mysteries, gives a long list of authors who “fueled my desire to write” at the end of The Devil’s Wind. Among them are Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Ellery Queen, Patrick O’Brian, C.S. Forester, Rafael Sabatini and J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m sure other writers have their own lists.

"...reading is one of the few things you do alone that can make you feel less alone; it's a solitary activity that connects you to others."

Reading is bit like eavesdropping into other people’s lives, in the case of fiction, and into other people’s minds, in the case of nonfiction. And so while we may be alone, we don’t feel alone.

"Books can attach themselves to memories in unexpected ways."

A book, just the sight of it on a shelf or a mention of the title in conversation, can trigger memories of  where and when we read the book, even what we were thinking when we read it. We may have forgotten every detail of a novel’s plot while still remembering how much we enjoyed reading it.

"Every book we've read and everyone we've known, living and dead, is with us."

This seems like overstatement to me. Sure both books we’ve read and people we’ve met stay with us. But every book and every person? Doubtful.

"Reading brings with it responsibility."

Some books, both fiction and nonfiction, do call us to do something, to try to change either ourselves or the world we live in. Schwalbe writes about how a variety of books have changed him.

"Books remain one of the strongest bulwarks we have against tyranny."

Freedom of expression means not just writing and publishing books but also reading them.

"And reading all different kinds of books is not simply reading all different kinds of books; it's a way of becoming more fully human and more humane."

Like the author, I am a believer in reading a variety of books, not just those by certain authors or in certain genres. Does this make me more fully human or more humane than the guy who reads only thrillers or perhaps nothing at all? I doubt it. But it does make me better than I was before I read those books.

"When I read, I'm reminded to be more thoughtful about how I approach each day. And that's not just important for living: it's the least I can do for the dead."

It is the last phrase that strikes me: “it’s the least I can do for the dead.” We honor the dead by improving upon the world they made for us, respecting what they did right, forgiving what they got wrong. Reading books by dead authors is also a way of honoring them, of keeping their ideas and imaginations alive.