1969sl 's review for:

How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen

5.0

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This wonderful, too-short book (actually extended essay) is Quindlen's love letter to reading and although it might sound as preaching to the converted, it speaks to all of us who were born with passion for reading. It is still a mystery to me why some people took to reading from the earliest age while others just couldn't be bothered (something I noticed from the childhood in my own family) so its a revelation to read authoress as eloquent and compassionate as Quindlen who understands this inner urge to travel far away from boring reality trough the wonderful medium of books. Although Quindlen points at certain expectations in American society, where outdoorsy activities were always preferred to suspicious reading indoors, I have absolutely same experiences in my corner of the world, where I was perceived as a strange, bookish child who should "go outside" like my little book companions were somehow not the real world - well, for me they were real world and it still are far more real than anything else. Amongst other things, Quindlen discusses the importance of "bad literature" (all those bestsellers that gave us pleasure back in the day) as opposite to classics often forced upon schoolchildren who are too young to actually enjoy them, the books our parents considered "dirty" and the effects of technology on medium that was long confined to the paper but now metamorphoses - and still thrives - in other clothes. It took me forever to accept e-reader but it didn't diminish my pleasure in reading, in fact thanks to it I am actually reading more than ever before. I gulped this in one sitting and feel such comradeship with Quindlen (and all the bookworms around the world) that I could embrace her with happy smile.