Pages Of Adventure

The experience of reading is not passive.


Erica Jong

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Hello Arlene

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I am always a bit puzzled by those advertisements that offer me a subscription to great books that come in leather bound, expensive and elaborate designs, particularly on the spines. It seems to we those books were not meant to be read but to sit on a book shelf looking impressive. If one wants to read "War and Peace" it would be better to leave the ostentatious copy on the shelf and go out and buy the paper back. By the time you finish reading it (if you ever do) it will be well roughed up.



I am amused at Marcel Proust's remark that the leather bound tomes ought to contain all the latest gossip and inconsequential news while the world's great literature should be printed in the daily newspapers It's not a bad idea if it gets people to read important literature.



One can generally tell a genuine reader by observing his book cases. They are usually jam packed with books and look like they are in state of chaos, which they aren't. I don't have any book cases. What I have is book piles. They are piled on the tables and chairs and on the floor. Some of them never leave my side. Some of them I've read, some I'm reading and some I am reading again.



Tucked between the pages of a book is the authors world, and that world is expressed in the author's words, anywhere from simple jokes to esoteric metaphysical visions. Reading a book invites one into a journey, an explorations and the discovery of a different paradigm of understanding. It's an adventure of the mind



Today people read off their computer screens, kindles or phones. Imagine reading "Wars and Peace" on your iPad.



Have I ever read a book that changed my life? I love my books. I loved my books because they're books and because I know that as I read them they do change my life to one degree or another even if the change is imperceptible.



Dana - Vagabond Journeys

Never Give Up

http:///vagabondbate.livejournal.com

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