If interested, you can read the review here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/books/review/how-literature-saved-my-life-by-david-shields.html?_r=0.
The reviewer, Mark O'Connell, quotes this passage from the book (It's a passage I can't stop thinking about):
"Acutely aware of our mortal condition, I find books that simply allow us to escape existence a staggering waste of time (literature matters so much to me I can hardly stand it)."
At first, I dismissed this comment, thinking that many a time I pick up a book to escape my worries and concerns, i.e., I unabashedly use books as therapy. In fact, especially the books I read at night tend to be lighter, funnier, and more reality-escaping than what I read at other times because I enjoy sleeping instead of staying up worrying about my problems (and everyone else's).
But this phrase kept coming back to me. Is there something wrong with me? Do I not try to eek out all the traces of life lessons, self-revelations, and insights about the human condition that books contain? Am I reading the wrong books--maybe I need ones with more despair and existential crisis that end badly and in much pain. (Okay, just kidding, but I couldn't resist poking a little fun at literary fiction.)
Well, maybe I do eek out traces of life lessons of books--all the time. Actually, maybe we all do, just not to the urgent and intellectual extent Mr. Shields seems to. Maybe it actually happens as we enjoy the story.
We read for connection to other human beings--do you think? What are they always telling us in writing workshops--make your characters relatable. Give them a complex array of traits and flaws so that your reader immediately identifies with them. Take the reader on the journey as your character faces her worst fears, challenges her world view, and changes--works to overcome obstacles in her life that make her a better person.
This is why I read, especially romance. I love the journey. I love the hope that we can change our faults, can learn to see that our weaknesses and flaws aren't boulders that can never be moved, and I love that love--connection with other people--is the one thing that matters in our very mortal existence.
So this ain't highbrow, but I truly believe that no book we truly enjoy is ever a means of just blanking out our existence. We're searching for something--connection, encouragement, reassurance that this journey we're all on does mean something--that our life means something--and we're searching for wisdom to make it the most we can.
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This was a great post! I agree. I use books to escape and to enjoy a brief respite from a hectic life. Everyone brings something different to their journey. Tweeted
ReplyDeleteHi Nancy,
DeleteThanks for sharing my post. From a young age my mother taught me that books are my friends in good times and bad! Don't know what I'd do without them!
This WAS a great post. I read to escape - true, but also for the hope that the joy and happiness of an HEA will uplift my spirits. I enmesh myself with the characters, and feel their angst, and warm to their love. I love Romance.
ReplyDeleteHi Barb,
DeleteI love Romance too for all those reasons. It's about resilience, courage, strength, hope. Uplifting!
When I was younger, I read books to gain insight and escape. Now that I'm older, and have lived through my husband and son being in wars, my friends dying, practicing criminal and family law for twenty years, I read for escape.
ReplyDeleteHi Ella,
DeleteI read for the hope that goodness and love prevail over the bad. Call that escapism...or just plain old optimism. Thanks for stopping by!
I almost always read for escape, although sometimes that escape is made by a book filled with new ideas that make me think a little differently about something. But most of the time, I read for enjoyment, and I don't really understand why that should be a problem for some. I've been a reader for nearly fifty years, a librarian for seventeen, and a writer for about five, which has taught me that readers seek out what what they need to be reading at that moment of their life. I have found this to be particularly true in my own life, and can distinctly remember my reading habits changing when I was home with a young child. It seemed all I read then was magazines -- I thought perhaps my brain had gone soft! Then I realized that I was reading magazines because all the free time I had came in short bites, enough time time to read an article, but not enough to get anywhere in a book.
ReplyDeleteThis is a subject I could expound on for hours, but I'm not sure that would be a good thing! So I'll just say, thanks for the interesting, thought-provoking post.
Hi Kym,
Delete"readers seek out what what they need to be reading at that moment of their life."
I really like this! Thanks for sharing.
I read for many reasons, for reviews, for learning, and entertainment are my main reasons.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Bob.
Delete