A place to read, Alexandria, VA

*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.

Dear Person,

Why read?

Because you only have one life but reading gives you many lives.  Because you only have one personality but when you read a book you can be inside another mind and heart.  Because experiencing elegance of language is one of the greatest pleasures of consciousness.  Reading lets you be quiet in a chaotic world and commune with amazing people who may happen to be dead now, so not too easy to connect with otherwise.  Reading startles you.  Reading upsets you.  Reading takes apart your world and expectations and rearranges them.  Imagine the last few years without the books you have loved – it would be a much flatter, sadder experience of living.  We read as a form of faith.

Naomi Wolf

A Velocity of Being:  Letters to a Young Reader edited by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick

Comments are welcome!