To quote Irene Gentle, Editor of The Toronto Star: "“I’m breaking protocol to look at nothing but reading, because now is a time to remember we’re part of the arc of history. And all books, because we’ll be refreshing news hits all day and drifting into a longer narrative can remind us to breathe and of life outside this moment and time.”
I've been waiting to post during this past week of panic. The best piece of advice I'm able to share as a reader/writer is simply to give yourself permission to dive into the pages of a good book. And then a second, and a third. Some of us read faster than others and some barely at all. But if there's one thing we can do for ourselves while we're sequestered at home, it's to indulge in the calming and transformative practice of deep reading.
Read to yourself, read out loud to your partner or roommate, read to the dog or cat. Just read. Be safe and healthy.
Subscribe to a newspaper, Sunday editions provide week-long material. And there's something for all the family in the Sunday sections.
Stay in, take fresh air and exercise whenever you're able to, keeping yourself and others safe with appropriate social distancing, but please do throw yourself into the world of your choice in the pages of a great book and with abandon.
“We read to know we're not alone.”
William Nicholson, Shadowlands
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
Lemony Snicket, Horseradish
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
C.S Lewis
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
Stephen King
“Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.”
Jane Smiley, Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”
Anna Quindlen
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