I especially liked this chapter when I came across it. In my high school English class we read some of "Leaves of Grass," by Walt Whitman. I found it very interesting that Whitman has responded differently to Margaret Fuller's "Women in the Nineteenth Century." He responded very well to her work of art while other well known authors criticized it. Manguel then goes on to say, "For Whitman, text, author, reader, and world mirrored each other in the act of reading, an act whose meaning he expanded until it served to define every vital human activity, as well as the universe in which it all took place (p168)." This is what caught my attention and really made me begin to think. All of the things Manguel mentioned go hand and hand with each other. To understand one may, and very often does, make another easier to understand. I love to read murder mystery novels (blame my mother) and from them I am able to, in a way, make connections to the world. Not everyone has good intentions and I would be silly to believe otherwise. Another type of book I like to read is memoirs. I vividly remember reading a book my senior year called, "The Glass Castle" By Jeannette Walls. This book was one authors experiences, put into to text, and read by many. It shows something about out world and the people that live in it. These examples are the things that first came into my mind when I was reading this section Manguel wrote. Everything can be connected to reading, and reading itself allows one to write well and maybe even see the world a bit more clearly.
I have never really thought about WHY I was reading, but always had library books in my locker, read before I went to sleep, read in the car on long road trips, or read on the way to softball games. After reading Manguel's "A History of Reading" I have begun to think about why someone reads and the importance of reading. I understand that everyone reads for many different reasons but regardless of those reasons you can discover an entirely different world by stepping into a book. This book has also allowed me to think about the purpose author's intended when writing, especially some of the greatest books that have ever been written. In the beginning Manguel says, "I am not alone" and now I feel as though I am not alone either.
It is intriguing to me at what drives a person to read certain types of literature. Like you, I never really thought of why I was reading either. I just always have. I have also started to question why I read and why I read what I read. I love the feeling of getting lost in a book and going into my own world. It is easy to forget others do the same thing for different motives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that reading allows for better writing. Since reading allows you to see the world more clearly, you are more qualified to write, so then other readers read your writing and learn about the world from you. I remember reading the section where Manguel talks about different reasons why writers write. Knowing a writer's purpose definitely helps with understanding the writing.
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