Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books

I have often pondered why reading assumes addictive proportions in the lives of some (in that they structure their routines to accomodate this activity). Is it because reading is a means of escapism to locales more exciting? Does the written word offer a fleeting glimpse into the mind of those more interesting than the people in your life? Does it validate the innermost thoughts and experiences that you are reluctant to share with others? Perhaps, the reason is escapism from all that is mundane and routine, period.

Although we are very nice people, and are very modest about it, those of us who spend a lot of time reading consider ourselves superior to people who spend a lot of time watching television or playing computer games. Are we justified? Over fifty thousand books are published every year in the USA alone. How can we choose which ones to read? Is there a canon of great books that everyone should read, and that we should make students read before they're allowed to get degrees in engineering or medicine ? If there is a canon is it overloaded with dead white males? If we revise the canon are we being too politically correct? In this slim and elegant essay Lynn Sharon Schwartz offers answers to some of these questions. (The answer to the first one is, of course, yes). The book begins with personal reminiscences of reading, almost entirely of fiction reading, although the first work mentioned is by a Buddhist monk who is opposed to reading. She does admit to some television watching. Her most solid argument comes towards the end, when she encounters an American writer who has not heard of Raymond Carver. She makes a good case that anyone in the writing business cannot practice his trade properly without having done some homework. It is highly readable, and, as I said, slim and elegant. Therein is my major criticism. A fat book full of facts and figures would have done more justice to her topic. Some reports of surveys of public opinion, sales figures,interviews with college curriculum planners and descriptions of publishers marketing strategies, would have added to our interest, even if they spoiled the prose style.

Like the author i can remember the books i read as a child (with great fondness), i have those books even today, and like her they are my old and familiar friends. But unlike her most of those books have been nonfiction, for i thought/think those were the way to see the real world. After reading this book i realize that the gap i thought existed between nonfiction and fiction isn't really important. For she sees books, like i imagine most readers do, as a funny kind of mirror which reflects the reader's inner world at the same time as displaying the author's world. I think the gap is between readers and nonreaders, who like those described this book as visual or picture people, identify with films rather than books. The book is a memoir which asks the big question on our reading minds-- does it matter if i can't remember what is in the books? She answers it- "For in the end, even if all my books where to vanish, I would still have them somewhere, if I had read them attentively enough. Maybe the words on the page are not even the true book, in the end only a gateway to the book which recreates in the mind and lasts as long as we do." The book is a real treat for anyone who like her, is often asked, "haven't you wasted your life, by reading rather than experiencing life?" She answers this with the thought that her life is so intertwined with the books she has read and thereby experienced, and so made a part of her. That it doesn't matter, which is books and which is real life for they together make her, her. It's a good book, short, poignant with echoes and parallels apparent to any readers life. Go for it, spend a pleasant hour with this book.

'Ruined by Reading' captures -- in short, flowing and evocative prose -- memories of Ms. Schwarz's lifelong love affair with the written word. She shares the books and stories that became her friends at various stages of life, and does so in a most captivating and unpretentious way. On almost every page the reader will find themselves nodding alone with some cogent or pithy comment about the joys and pitfalls of a literary addiction, even if not familiar with the particular writing used as the example. Ms. Schwartz's prose is direct, clean and spare. Although highly personal, she manages to illuminate a universal theme. I came away feeling that I had gained some real insight into the author's character, based upon her selection and reaction to various books. Her interweaving of family life and the books she cherishes is often quite frank about her feelings regarding her parents or authors, but the honesty exhibited is never gratuituous. A small book, it can be read at a single sitting, but I preferred to linger and savor the experience over several evenings. I now look forward anxiously to reading her novels, and will list this book as a "must read" for my writer and reader friends