Remember that book I mentioned a week or two ago when talking about audiobooks, Steve Leveen’s The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life? Well, shortly thereafter I ordered it through ILL (interlibrary loan). It arrived today and when I got home from school I picked it up, intending to read only a chapter or so. An hour and a half later, I came to the end of the last page. :) Reading for that long is something I haven’t done in a while, and it felt so good. I’d forgotten how good it feels. In fact, it was just what I needed in this way-too-busy week that could have driven me to the brink of insanity had I not taken a nice and well-deserved break. I love reading. :)
Harking back to another post, I think I’ve been converted to writing in books: as I read Your Well-Read Life, I kept fighting the urge to mark good passages and write my thoughts in it. :) (It’s a library book, definitely a no-no.) In my reading for the C.S. Lewis Society meetings I’ve been marking ever since The Great Divorce, and it really does make a difference. Everything stays in my memory so much clearer and longer than it used to. (”Everything” meaning the important and good stuff, of course.)
Another thought: I’m the kind of person who feels obligated to finish a book once I’ve started it, but in reading these books on reading, it’s repeatedly emphasized that it’s okay to stop reading a boring book. And it’s a really good point: life is only so long, and there are so many books out there that we’re doing ourselves a disservice if we don’t read only the best books (for us).
Well, my nice new hardcover Silmarillion is begging for some one-on-one time, so au revoir for now. :)
[tags]reading, C.S. Lewis[/tags]