BiblioQueria 4

Now that the weather is finally improving (although it was a tad chilly this morning), I am making an effort to take daily morning walks in the park close to where I live. It helps me to clear my mind yet at the same time jumble it with creative thoughts, if that makes any sense.

On my travels this morning I walked by a woman who was wearing a sweatshirt that had the phrase on it: So Many Books, So Little Time. I laughed out loud and told her that I loved her sweatshirt. I just don't see that very often out in public; people proudly advertising that they are bona fide book-lusters.

So Little Time. It's so true, isn't it? We're on this earth for such a short period of time, and yet, there are hundreds of thousands of books out there to be read: books from the past, books in the present, and books yet to come. It's not fair, really. There's just no way to read everything, even if one is lucky enough to live to, say, 80 years of age. That is the only reason why I would want to be immortal, or at least live hundreds of years. Give me more time, dammit, so I can read everything!! The best I can hope for, is to be that little old lady with the cats and the cup of tea. Another reason to keep walking every day, right? Gotta stay healthy to read all those books!

So this passion for reading got me thinking. Why do I read? Why is it so important for me? There are those who read only for practical purposes; to acquire information and news. Yes, I do that, but I read for so much more than that. But it's hard to put into words why. So I'm curious. Can anyone else provide an answer?

Why do you read?

Comments

[R J Keefe]

I read partly to exercise my memory and my imagation (which crave exercise no less than a runner's limbs do), and partly to hear the music. There will probably always be an argument about which came first, speech or song, but I'm pretty certain that the kind of speech that we like to hear and to read is toneless song, a minimal music of vocables. Making sense is usually essential, but only because not making sense is annoying.

The older one gets (as I also believe), the more variously responsive to texts one's brain becomes. So, while we can't go on reading forever, our pleasure increases so long as we can read.

[adrienne]

I read to expand my horizons beyond my own little life. I am a stay-at-home mother of two small children. This can make it feel like the walls are closing in sometimes. I like to read to push those walls back out and to keep my brain in working order. I can't always talk to a grown-up, but I can read words written by a grown-up sometimes.

[Scully]

Ever since I was a little girl (my parents say I just always read, from about the age of 3) I have loved words. I love how words can conjure up a picture in my mind. I love how words can be played with. I love difficult words and I love simple words.

And I love when words become a story.

I love stories. And as much as I love movies and well done tv shows, I prefer to read a book. I can go in and out of a story anytime I want, and reread favourite parts and look back to figure out what's happening and I get lost in a story.

I own hundreds of books, and when I walk by the piles of books on my livingroom floor and my bedroom floor and the books in the bookcases, I know that there are lives being lived in those books. And I just have to open one to join in.

I also love the feel of a book. It's why I prefer hardcover books. I love the binding and the stitching and the dust covers and the embossed covers. I love holding a book. I love just looking at my books.

I love books. And I love reading them. I love that they transport me to another land, or time. I love that I can fall in love with fictional characters. And I love learning about history and real people.

It's a love affair that I will never end.

[Josh]

I have some sort of reading compulsion. I'm sure there must be some drug that would cure my addiction, maybe Paxil or something like that?

It's party that "we read to know we're not alone." No, it's mostly that. I read to experience other lives, other minds, places, genders even. How would I know anything at all if it weren't for books?

That woman's T-shirt restores some of my faith in humanity. Good on her!

[radmama]

So Many Books, So Little Time.

One of my favourite phrases, although I now will add book-luster to that list.

Reading is like breathing; there is no point in asking why I read, I must read to survive. I cannot remember not reading and voraciously devour the glorious words in books, magazines, newspapers, web pages, emails, cereal boxes, and so on.

[bob vojtko]

I also LOVE bookstores!! Especially OLD bookstores or bookstores that have OLD books!! Something about walking into them and leaving a few hours later with some 'gems'! Cartoon collection books from the 40's, 50's...so much history!
'So many books, so little time' is also true for me-but mostly cause I buy so many books-and most are still unread!

[mary]

I believe everyone has their own way of communicating with and interpreting the world. Some people communicate their passion with food, some need to use their whole body, using athletic activities to relate physically, some use gardens, some use theatre. For many it's music and voice.

I can only relate to the world through books, words, and their illustrations. I have to read. It's the only way I can see.

[Lazygal]

I read because I can't imagine not reading! It's my escape, my window into other lives and eras. There's never enough time for that escape, and my To Be Read piles keep growing, but as long as I have time and books, I'm ok.

[Deborah Orgel]

You asked this question on the most appropriate of days, Patricia. Yesterday, I'd have answered that I read to write essays, to find theory/themes/easter eggs in every story. I'd have answered that I read to regurgitate.

Finally, wonderfully, now that I've finished with schooling, I can read for sustenance again, and for myself. Ahhhh...

By the way, I love that you colored the lovely book-lusty lady with watercolors---beautiful. That cartoon should be a giveaway bookmark. Cats-as-slippers! Brilliant!

[David]

I read so I can dazzle and intimidate people at parties with the weight of my mighty intellect and extensive literary references.

Sorry, I'm just being a goofy pain-in-the-ass because everyone else already took all the good answers. So my real answer is "ditto to the above". It enriches my world and it enriches me.

Also, the difficulty with your living-hundreds-of-years scenario is that those pesky writers keep writing new stuff before you can finish all of the old stuff.

And I'm (currently) envious of your weather. Here in New Orleans we're pretty much done with Spring and are moving into the brutally hot, stay in doors part of the year.

[iliana]

Where do I get my hands on that t-shirt! Actually I have one that says "reading is sexy" -- I adore showing off my bookwormy nature.

I read because it's essential to me. My passion for reading started at an early age. My mom was a bookworm and always read to me and my dad always bought me books. Also I think being an only child it was easy to fall into reading. No real friends around, who cares my best friends were always there - Harriet the Spy, Trixie Belden, etc.

[Deanette]

I grew up in an abusive home and books were the way I escaped from the world I lived in. Reading a book took my mind off of everything else that was happening around me, and gave me hope. Because no matter how bad things would get for the characters in my books they would always have happy ending. I think that's why I still read as much as I do. Its a way to get away from all the crap that's going on in my life.

[Anne]

This is a great topic, and one I've given some thought to. It drove me crazy when I hit middle age and realized I would NOT, after all, be able to read everything I might wish to, or that I felt I "should," during my lifetime. I work and have 3 kids and a husband and a dog and two birds, and volunteer at our church; life is full.

One thing I decided to do was not waste time reading things that seem unappealing, after giving them a fair chance. If I get 1/4 into a book and honestly feel "eh" about it, back to the library (or used-book store) it goes. No regrets. Life really IS too short to choke down unpalatable prose just because some friend or reviewer says you should.

While this still goes against my nature as a bibliophile, I am starting to get the hang of it. Now that I'm over 50, I am picky about what I read, which helps to ease my mind about that vexing "so little time" mortality thing.
- Anne (lurker until now)

[Calliope]

Bookstores make me want to poop. Is anyone with me?

[Charlie]

So many books, so little time, I often think about that.

I guess at the moment I finish on average two books a week ( I always have three books on the go at any one time, this week it's Eragon, Around the world in 80 days and Jingo, which was left over from a couple of weeks back). I'm a fast reader (reading slower doesn't improve my retention or enjoyment) and I spend a fair amount of time in hotels. This to some of my friends sounds a lot, but to me it sounds like nothing, at best it's a hundred odd books a year, which is just a drop in the literary ocean.

Why do I read? Well I don't watch Televison, or hardly anyway. I prefer to use my imagination than have images presented to me on a plate. Books just enthral me, they transport me to other places real or fictional, they expand my mind, they expand my vocabulary (if not enhance my spelling, which has always been poor), they are other places that I can take anywhere with me. I sit down to read a chapter and three hundred pages later wonder why my eyes are tired.

I also read books many times. Around the world in 80 days isn't a first read, but I recently re read Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 days and decided that I must now re read the orginal that inspired the Michael Palin trip. I must admit I do have a preference for books in a serie., I am always sad to finish a book and am always far happier if I know that the characters have more adventures to come in further books and that by the time I have finsihed them all sufficient time will have passed to be able to start at the beginning again.

[Dave]

RJ Keefe said it, to exercise your imagination. No camera , no set , no actor can create a more believable world than your imagination. Ever go to a movie version of a popular book and while everyone is praising the movie you keep thinking "My god , the book was so much better ! What are these people raving about" ? Sadly much of this generation have lost that opportunity and it is why we are still today living off literature created so long ago . Why film remakes are rampant and originality is in limited supply. Books are the most powerful stimulation to a persons creative abilities and I believe that is what what led you to cartooning . You have a muscular imagination built over years of reading. Love the cartoon. The cat shoes made me giggle.

[Manuel]

One way to think about "why we read" is to think about the problems we have. Reading, I think is (partially) a response to those problems and a way of getting at them. Sometime we find answers but there are some problems that can't be washed away in an encounter between a reader and her book. But it is pretty certain that we find some sort of sustenance in the experience of turning pages. We harvest what we need in light of what a particualr book has to offer us. Love your site, this is my first time posting to a blog.

[eliane]

It's mental eating.

[eliane]

@ Calliope: Yes, I have that too!! Second hand bookstores are even worse. I can hardly browse for books. I get the bathroom urge after 10 minutes max.

[Calliope]

Eliane,

Oh thank god. I was starting to think that I was the only one. And used bookstores? Oh honey, those are the worst! And they hardly ever have bathrooms, either.

[adrienne]

Calliope, I had a roommate in college who got that way on the law floor of our university library.

[Sue]

"so many books, so little time", my very favorite t-shirt!
Why do I read? You might as well ask, why do I breathe?
Because I must! It is sustenance for my mind. Movies, TV, Internet, Music.... I have found nothing to compare with books.

[patricia]

All of these answers are amazing. I would say that I can relate to every post here.

Except for maybe, the poop one. The only thing that really makes me poop is licorice.

[Kelley bell]

Books are the only friends I have, that I can trust to never betray me.

[Hasmita Chander]

Hi Patricia, (I came upon your blog through M J Rose's site, but I had to search through your links to discover your name!)

I have to say first of all that I Love your illustrations - the style is cool and endearing!

I'm a bookworm, too. I read because I love words. I read to escape into different worlds. I think I also read to make sense of the world around me - books always have it down pat, at least to a good extent. And that's really reassuring!

Best wishes,
Hash