One of the annual joys of life is surveying the new Birthday Stack* and speculating as to which book will have the greatest impact. This is assuming, of course, that the books are actually read in the next year. Since I haven't completed all the volumes from last year's book stack, this assumption might be naive - but I remain ridiculously sanguine where my reading abilities are concerned.
As I thumbed through one of the new acquisitions, Answering God, by Eugene Peterson
Everything depends on how we read, on how we enter the magic circle of a text's meanings; on how we smuggle ourselves into its words, and allow the texture of a text to weave its web around us.
I thought this was very good. I mean, it seemed true. I've talked to people who read Dostoevsky and thought he was boring. And - well, obviously - I rub shoulders with students every other day who complain loudly about being forced to read garbage like The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird. The poor youngsters. I feel very sorry for them as I smack 'em upside the head and tell them to read the books and like it. Ok, brief digression there.
The question I was getting at was What makes a great reader? How does one "smuggle" oneself inside the world of a book, infiltrate the "magic circle," become entangled in the bookish "web?"
I've been asking myself this, especially since it pertains to more than my Birthday Stack. With a friend of mine, I'm reading through the gospel of Luke this week, and so the question gains an added urgency. How can I get as deep as possible inside the story of Jesus? To insinuate myself inside that "book" would be to gain a brilliant edge in living...
So you see, the question, What makes a great reader? could affect more than your reading habits. It might change your life.
For this reason, I think the topic lends itself to a Blogger Limelight discussion. Let's take on the question of "how we read." What makes reading more than a temporary escape from reality? What can we do to storm the gates a book, plunder its pages, and emerge with something livable?
It would be great to hear from some of you on this. If you need a refresher on the Blogger Limelight idea, go ahead. Then write your post, link back here using the provided code, and leave a link to your own post in the comments below.
Are you a great reader?
::
To link back, just cut and paste this code. You'll need to replace the three pairs of [ ] brackets with < > to make it operational. In the future, maybe I'll find a more elegant way of doing this...[a href=http://bittersweetblue.blogspot.com/2005/11/book-smarts-how-high-can-you-read.html][img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/63/438/400/Blogger%20Limelight%20copy.0.jpg" border="0" alt="Are you in the Blogger Limelight?" /][/a]
* I'd post a picture of the new stack, as is the tradition, but Hello! has gone buggy on me and I'm still working on an alternative method of posting photos. Feel free to advise.
11 comments:
Wow! Great question. It's probably a better question than what constitutes a "great" read. I need to think about this.
Cheers.
Okay, you have tickled my fancy, but I will be honest the end of the semester draws nigh so it might be awhile. It takes me longer to craft a document than most.
Incidentally:
"And - well, obviously - I rub shoulders with students every other day who complain loudly about being forced to read garbage like The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird."
It is stories like that which almost make me weep for young students.
My thoughts on the topic are slowly coalescing...
Yeah, o.c., it's as you say.
*Posing momentarily as a jaded librarian-type:*
"Sigh. Youngsters these days... the great American novel's chances of creation took a real hit when they invented PlayStation."
Not to mention creditable hoops smack. These kids don't seem to realize that "You suck, yo" doesn't qualify as brilliant.
Hey, I'm just now realizing what some of you have no doubt already noted. There's actually no need to come back here and post a link to your Limelight piece because your links back to this post (and thus your Limelight takes) automatically show up as backlinks (below).
Now doesn't that work out nicely?
Uh hi, it's me again. I realized that if you're not using the Blogger platform, they may not pick up your links back to this post.
So feel free to manually stick in a link to your Limelight piece if you're not sure Blogger is aware of your blog.
For example, I stumbled across Sherry's solid take on How To Read a Book. It would be sad if you missed it...
I live at 80535 Commonwealth in Seattle. Been up here before?
I live at 80535 Commonwealth in Seattle. Been up here before?
I live at 80535 Commonwealth in Seattle. Been up here before?
I live at 80535 Commonwealth in Seattle. Been up here before?
I live at 80535 Commonwealth in Seattle. Been up here before?
I live at 80535 Commonwealth in Seattle. Been up here before?
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