Reading, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee cozily during a thunderstorm, nestled in and engrossed. I love thee as a 15-minute respite during the workday. I love thee sleepily while sneaking in a couple chapters at night. I love thee thankfully as an afternoon escape and a quiet, life-giving break.
It was Tyrion from A Song of Ice and Fire who said, “A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.”
Books can expand our minds, foster empathy, bond us, and transport us. Books can help us understand where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go.
They enable us to capture history and to learn. They are magical means of expression, imagination, and experience.
Books call our children to our laps and gift us with shared bedtime stories.
They introduce us to characters we can carry with us and remember like old friends. Ones we can pick up and revisit, if we really love them.
Books can take us to fantastical places in which we get lost, and they can also ground us in reality and truth.
They can speak to us in ways that stick with us forever.
Books can change our lives.
I’m Jodi Ritter, and that’s my perspective.
