On books and reading and what's on your shelves

The last time our family moved house, we had something like 100 boxes.  Some 73 of them contained books.  As a child, I was read to, I was enrolled in a children's book club, and I had my own bookshelf in my bedroom.  Sometime in kindergarten, the strange-looking characters separated themselves into words and I no longer had to wait for a parent or a babysitter to come and read to me. I have been a bookworm ever since.

After one of our many moves, some neighbors dropped in to welcome us to the neighborhood.  The bookshelves were up and loaded.  One of the women, after looking at the titles and seeing Stendahl and Dickens and Austen, asked, "Have you read all these?" with a slight edge to her voice.  "Not yet" was my reply.  "Oh." Pause. "I like that." I think she was trying to accuse us of being pretentious or something.

So today I found justification for having unread books on my shelves.


People sometimes act as though owning books you haven’t read constitutes a charade or pretense, but for me, there’s a lovely mystery and pregnancy about a book that hasn’t given itself over to you yet — sometimes I’m the most inspired by imagining what the contents of an unread book might be.” ~Jonathan Lethem


I also encourage my students to read widely so as to be better- informed writers:


My life was changed. The books she gave me opened my mind to the simple realization that there is in the world such a thing as truly great literature; and that I would never discover it by mere hit-or-miss, or by reading only what interested me. ~Stephen Carter


How does the reading feed into the writing, and vice versa? Continually, continuously, promiscuously, in a million ways.” ~ Philip Pullman


Sometimes this means reading less-than-stellar books.  Only after having a mediocre marinara sauce on your pasta can you truly appreciate a fresh, homemade, flavorful marinara.  It is the same with literature:


Some books are just crap and have to be thrown out. But some crappy books remind you of certain times in your life and have to be kept. In the closet.” ~ Gary Shteyngart


I hope to be back next week with more tropes.  In the meantime, I wish you all happy holidays.


Thanks for stopping by.