Doesn't the title of this diary sound delicious? I hope so, I intended for it to. I found myself staring at the logo image ==> that identifies this series, and got to thinking, "Why did I choose that picture?" Look at Fair Reader. What is it about her that so appeals? I think it's because she appears to be totally enjoying herself, because she looks absolutely comfortable cossetted in that plump pillow, because the atmosphere surrounding her is suffused with yellow gold light that is warming to behold, and because her bright book looks little, intimate, and at the same time fat and juicy. She herself, represents attractive, well-fed, healthy youth at perfect peace. She is obviously reading for pleasure. And I don't get the impression this is a rare instance for her.
Ludic reading means spontaneous reading for pleasure. Reading without coercion or assignment; reading for the sheer joy of it. Gluttony is, on one hand, regarded as a deadly sin, but in this case I mean to imply avidly gobbling a book, swallowing it whole, gulping the story down. We know that for many of us, the time we take to read for pleasure may have to be snatched from periods when we could (or should) be doing tasks and chores, so there is often a guilt associated with the pastime, a mild sense of sin. Guilty pleasure. So why not think "gluttonous ludic reading" when considering the pleasure of reading for the sheer "want to"? What do we get out of it? Why do we do it? Can we over-stuff ourselves consuming too many books?
Please turn the page.
The pleasure of reading obviously must supply rewards and benefits, otherwise nearly no one would be addicted. It won't hurt to review some of those good things derived from curling up with a favorite book. First of all most of us read fiction for pleasure more than non-fiction. Yet, there are times when a good travel book, a history or a biography are exactly what suits our cravings. Even technical and academic texts can be perused for pleasure -- the pleasure of finding things out. And that may be the primary reason we read, for learning does not have to be achieved through direct lesson and with intent. There is inherent satisfaction in learning new things. That is why I consider my habit of reading modern physics works by such authors as Paul Davies, Stephen Hawking, Alan Lightman, Murray Gell-Mann, Brian Greene, and Lisa Randall unbreakable.
General knowledge is like water to a thirsty brain. But there is deeper knowledge that is more like a fudge brownie -- chewier, richer, and totally satisfying. Fiction gives us a better understanding of other cultures and greater insight into human nature and even decision making. Such knowledge is, in part, the foundation of wisdom. We read to participate -- if vicariously -- in the community of Mankind beyond the confines of our personal experience. Who is better than Mma Ramotswe for guiding us along the path of upright and moral living, with the proper regard for all persons and respect for our environment? I may live near Miami, USA and she may reside in Gaborone, Botswana, but that doesn't prevent me from having feelings of kinship and strong attachment. She is still my teacher and my mentor -- the educator of my feelings.
The efferent and aesthetic experience of becoming "lost in a book" is tantamount to escaping the day's problems and tensions, to being carried away from the self who has to deal with life's tribulations and transported to places in the imagination so detached from the pressing demands of everyday living that when one does surface from the book, one is refreshed and revitalized if slightly disoriented. For me, the beauty of story in Clare Morrall's Natural Flights of the Human Mind, for instance, is so profound that after I've closed the book, a greater part of me truly believes that I lived the book and that Peter Straker and Imogen Doody truly live outside the pages of the novel and are friends of mine who I can really visit on my next trip to Devon, England.
Books are mind-altering drugs with no bad side or after-effects. Sinking into the story can combat feelings of loneliness, it can inspire us when we are discouraged, and can block self-awareness. No wonder there exists a term: escapist literature. Reading for pleasure is escapism. Unlike the movies and TV, it is an activity we can control. As the power of the story manipulates our minds, we can manipulate the order in which we receive the story, the doses or allotments that we take in at a sitting, and we can instantaneously go back an re-read at any point as often as we like. We can finish a book -- and some of us may strive to forget it at once in order to heighten the experience of picking it up again -- and immediately, or at a later time in our lives, re-read it cover to cover. Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles is a saga that I wallowed in on first reading and on subsequent re-readings. She transports me to Renaissance Europe, Africa, and Asia and I traverse continents in a time and as places I can only know by reading her books. No one can just eat one brownie!
And who can argue that one of life's greatest pleasures is reading in bed? To me it is the positive distillation of the delights of reading. Without it, it's hard for me to go to sleep. Whether 10 minutes or far into the night, there is little time that can be more pleasurably spent than minutes and hours tucked in with John le Carré's The Naive and Sentimental Lover. Better still is the lagniappe of reading aloud to someone you love from a book that you both enjoy. What better way to bring two people together than through laughter, and who better to lead the way through fields of merriment than Bertie Wooster and Jeeves?
With that, I leave you to comment or no while I go munch my way through John Lanchester's Fragrant Harbor. . .
It is 1935, and Tom Stewart, a young Englishman with a longing for adventure, buys himself a cheap ticket aboard the SS Darjeeling en route to the complex, corrupt, and corrupting world of Hong Kong.
. . .the author (of course) of
The Debt to Pleasure. Sounds yummy! Now, what could that be about?
Readers & Book Lovers Series Schedule
DAY |
TIME (EST/EDT) |
Series Name |
Editor(s) |
SUN |
3:00 PM |
Science, Math, and Statistics Books |
plf515 |
SUN |
6:00 PM |
Young Reader's Pavilion |
The Book Bear |
SUN |
9:30 PM |
SciFi/Fantasy Book Club |
quarkstomper |
MON |
8:00 PM |
My Favorite Books & Authors |
billssha |
TUE |
8:00 AM |
Calvacade of Words |
aravir |
TUE |
8:00 PM |
Readers & Book Lovers Newsletter |
Limelite |
WED |
7:30 AM |
WAYR? |
plf515 |
WED |
8:00 PM |
Bookflurries: Bookchat |
cfk |
THU |
2:00 PM (bi-weekly) |
eReaders & Book Lovers Club |
Limelite |
THU |
8:00PM |
Write On! |
SensibleShoes |
THU |
10:00 PM |
The Illustrated Imagination:Graphic Novels |
Cabbage Rabbit |
FRI |
9:00 AM |
Books That Changed My Life |
etbnc, aravir |
FRI |
9:00 PM (every 3rd week) |
A Book, Its Movie, and a Glass of Wine |
mdmslle |
SAT |
9:00 PM |
Books So Bad They're Good |
Ellid |
NOTE: Though not part of R&BLers Weekly Magazine Series, please look for "Indigo Kalliope: Poems From the Left" by various authors republished here every WED NOON by
aravir. Also look for "The Mad Logophile" by
Purple Priestess that appears intermittently, when the spirit moves her.
UPDATE: aravir has announced Calvacade of Words is discontinued.
Other than that, nothing's happening.