The Paradoxical Virtue Of Reading

We Human Beings Build Houses Because We're Alive But We Write Books Because We're Mortal. We Live In Groups Because We're Sociable But We Read Because We Know We're Alone. Reading Offers A Kind Of Companionship That Takes No One's Place But That No One Can Replace Either. It Offers No Definitive Explanation Of Our Destiny But Links Us Inextricably To Life. Its Tiny Secret Links Remind Us Of How Paradoxically Happy We Are To Be Alive While Illuminating How Tragically Absurd Life Is.

But Reading Is Different, Reading Is Something You Do. With Tv, And Cinema For That Matter, Everything's Handed To You On A Plate, Nothing Has To Be Worked At, They Just Spoon-feed You. The Picture, The Sound, The Scenery, The Atmospheric Music In Case You Haven't Understood What The Director's On About... The Creaking Door That Tells You To Be Stiff. You Have To Imagine It All When You're Reading.

The Paradoxical Virtue Of Reading Lies In Distancing Ourselves From The World So That We May Make Sense Of It.

You Can't Make Someone Read. Just Like You Can't Make Them Fall In Love, Or Dream.

A Well-chosen Book Saves You From Everything, Including Yourself.