[.ca] How Reading Changed My Life (ISBN 0345422783)

From Amazon.com:
A recurring theme throughout Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life is the comforting premise that readers are never alone. "There was waking, and there was sleeping. And then there were books," she writes, "a kind of parallel universe in which anything might happen and frequently did, a universe in which I might be a newcomer but never really a stranger. My real, true world." Later, she quotes editor Hazel Rochman: "Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but, most important, it finds homes for us everywhere." Indeed, Quindlen's essays are full of the names of "friends," real or fictional--Anne of Green Gables and Heidi; Anthony Trollope and Jane Austen, to name just a few--who have comforted, inspired, educated, and delighted her throughout her life. In four short essays Quindlen shares her thoughts on the act of reading itself ("It is like the rubbing of two sticks together to make a fire, the act of reading, an improbable pedestrian task that leads to heat and light"); analyzes the difference between how men and women read ("there are very few books in which male characters, much less boys, are portrayed as devoted readers"); and cheerfully defends middlebrow literature: Most of those so-called middlebrow readers would have readily admitted that the Iliad set a standard that could not be matched by What Makes Sammy Run? or Exodus. But any reader with common sense would also understand intuitively, immediately, that such comparisons are false, that the uses of reading are vast and variegated and that some of them are not addressed by Homer. The Canon, censorship, and the future of publishing, not to mention that of reading itself, are all subjects Quindlen addresses with intelligence and optimism in a book that may not change your life, but will no doubt remind you of other books that did. --Alix Wilber

She Understands Your Need to Read:
This book is a wonderful way for readers to understand themselves, if they don't already. Quindlen shows that we're NOT weird because we read, we're NOT escapists who can't handle the real world, and we're NOT anti-social. We're just in love with words and the power of stories. In only 84 pages, Quindlen tackles the reasons why we read, reading and technology, why classics should not be crammed down our kids' throats, and much more. Her Top Ten lists alone are worth the price of the book. As great as this book is for readers, it makes an even better gift for friends and family members who DON'T understand our need to read. A must read, a must-have.

Manifesto for the bookworms of the world:
It is impossible not to feel the kinship that this book provides. The title, for one thing, is spot on. Books do change your life, and the love of reading is one of the greatest gifts i have received. Like Quindlen, i remember discovering books as a little girl, and what a wonderful window into the world they were (and continue to be). She verbalizes what i'm sure many of us had felt for ages. Thank you for doing that!!!

Excellent reminder of why we love reading!:
It was beautiful to read a piece of work about - reading itself. Numerous times I recognised the same passion for books that I feel as well, but could never put on a paper as skilfully as Ms. Quindlen did. This extended essay was a wonderful reading experience, not only as a separate work, but also as an insight in Ms. Quindlen's favourites that she sometimes likes to mention in her novels.

A love letter to readers from a sister reader:
Anna Quindlen's "How Reading Changed My Life" is a charming and inspiring blend of autobiography and informal cultural criticism. In the book Quindlen reflects on books, reading, and readers. Quindlen notes, "While we pay lip service to the virtues of reading, the truth is that there is in our culture something that suspects those who read too much, whatever reading too much means, of being lazy, aimless dreamers \o...\c." These, and many other insights in this book, really resonated with me. Throughout the book, Quindlen celebrates what she calls a "lively subculture" of truly serious readers. Quindlen reflects on differences in men's and women's reading practices, on book groups, on skirmishes over "The Canon" of great books, on banned books, and on other topics. She tells how reading helped her keep her sanity during the "year of disarray" after the birth of her second child, and recalls how she fell in love with John Galsworthy's "Forsyte Saga." Ultimately, she explains why she believes that new technologies will not make old-fashioned books (versus online books) obsolete. HRCML is full of wonderful passages, such as a remembered epiphany over D.H. Lawrence. This short book concludes with a few reading lists: "10 Nonfiction Books That Help Us Understand the World," "The 10 Books I Would Save in a Fire (If I Could Save Only 10)," etc. If you are a serious reader, I predict that, like me, you will recognize a kindred spirit in these pages, and will rejoice.

A BOOK TO SAVOR:
THIS WONDERFUL BOOK TOUCHED MY HEART THE DAY I PURCHASED IT JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS DAY AROUND THREE YEARS AGO. I SPENT A FEW DAYS JUST ENGROSSED IN IT. ALL THE BOOKS THAT KEPT ME INSIDE LIKE ANNA HERSELF: I REMEMBER MY MOTHER EVEN NOW SAYING "DON'T READ - TALK TO ME WHILE YOU ARE HERE" - ANNA TOUCHED ON THE LOVE OF BOOKS LIKE NO OTHER PERSON HAS. THAT WONDERFUL COMMON THREAD WE ALL SHARE - THE LOVE OF READING AND THE LOVE OF WORDS AND THE LOVE OF BOOKS. AT THE BACK OF THE BOOK HER LISTS WERE COMPARABLE TO WHAT I READ, BUT I HAD FUN CHANGING AND COMPILING MY OWN, AND IT DID BETTER THAN THAT, IT CHALLENGED ME TO READ SOME OF THE BOOKS I HAD NOT READ BEFORE. THIS BOOK IS MY "COMFORT READ" WHEN NOTHING ELSE WILL DO - THIS IS THE BOOK I REACH FROM MY SIDE TABLE AND IS MY FRIEND, IT IS A BOOK TO SAVOR. I WISH MORE PEOPLE NEW ABOUT THIS BOOK AND NEW OF ITS CONTENTS, EVEN THOUGH ONLY THIN, IT IS MIGHTY POWERFUL AND MAKES ME FEEL PASSIONATE, LIKE ANNA, READING HAS CHANGED MY LIFE, A LIFE I ENJOY, AND AMONG FRIENDS - ALWAYS.