Reading Books is the Most Glorious Pastime
By: Wisława Szymborska
Get to know other worlds, if only for comparison.
—Wislawa Szymborska
I’m old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.
Homo Ludens dances, sings, produces meaningful gestures, strikes poses, dresses up, revels, and performs elaborate rituals.
I don’t wish to diminish the significance of these distractions — without them human life would pass in unimaginable monotony and, possibly, dispersion and defeat. But these are group activities, above which drifts a more or less perceptible whiff of collective gymnastics.
Homo Ludens with a book is free.
At least as free as he’s capable of being. He himself makes up the rules of the game, which are subject only to his own curiosity.
He’s permitted to read intelligent books, from which he will benefit, as well as stupid ones, from which he may also learn something.
He can stop before finishing one book, if he wishes, while starting another at the end and working his way back to the beginning.
He may laugh in the wrong places or stop short at words that he’ll keep for a lifetime. And, finally, he’s free — and no other hobby can promise this — to eavesdrop on Montaigne’s arguments or take a quick dip in the Mesozoic.
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I wrote a comment earlier but I don't see it. Growing up there was not a single book in the house. my thirst for knowledge and reading was so great that I could hardly wait to start school so I could have access to books. I even pleaded with the School Board to start school earlier( then, you started school at age 6) but to no avail. My books are my treasured possessions. They have been there in times of great needs. Angels in disguise, if you wish. Thank you for sharing!
My Dad took pleasure in reading to me at an early age--Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer--and would give the characters different voices. This was magical and I desperately wanted to know how to read in order to duplicate that. "There is no friend as loyal as a book". ~~E. Hemmingway