By Frank Breslin Far from being an escape from life as sometimes you’ll hear non-readers tell you, reading enables us to have a much deeper encounter with life, a more substantial way of engaging with it — much more insightfully, much more interestingly, much more enjoyably. Reading is the great elixir of life, opening us up to more intriguing dimensions and possibilities than we could have ever imagined. Unless, that is, you are wary about having too much insight and would rather proceed in the dark, in which case your life may become so interesting that it could easily spin out of control and end catastrophically, which no one desires, of course, with the possible exception of those who want to punish themselves to work off guilt feelings or are just into pain. It’s always been an open secret among readers that reading is one of the best early warning systems ever devised in alerting us if our lives may be beginning to go off the rails. Unless one is blessed by being surrounded by a phalanx of Wall Street lawyers, reading is one of life’s most indispensable survival skills, shining a bright light into the oncoming darkness where who knows what might be lying in wait. The more we read, and the more directions in which we shine reading’s radiant beacon of insight, the more light-flooded unfamiliar terrain will become for us and the more sure-footed we’ll tread in avoiding possible mishap. How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable would this world be if, with bugles sounding and banners unfurled, we chose to boldly press forward, caparisoned in all the rich finery of our bravado and ignorance, were it not for this indispensable adviser of Reading at our side to instruct and direct us. But even now I can hear some of you muttering, well, this is all very well and good, but what if we choose the wrong adviser to guide us by reading the wrong book? Isn’t it dangerous to give any one adviser so much power over us, even if that adviser is sincere? What if he’s wrong? And what about the old adage: “Beware the man of one book!” Beware of someone whose sight is so blinkered, squinting and pinched that all he can see is through a narrow slit of an outlook that takes in only a thin sliver of life. We’d rather an adviser who isn’t so locked into only one viewpoint that he’ll miss the big picture instead of his little worm’s-eye view of the world.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 14:04:20 +0000