Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.
Joyce Carol Oates
In my meandering through life and art and books I have arrived again at books. My Thursday Thoughts began in July 2010, and here we are still going, despite a wee break for 6 months.
One of the things I love is that I can still find words about books that charm me, intrigue me and make me celebrate or investigate books further.
One of the marks of a truly good fiction writer is their ability to let you get inside the head of a character. They could be a different gender; older; younger; smarter; wickeder; or any thing else that differentiates us, and yet we can slip into their world and experience it from within, in a way.
Non-fiction biography and autobiography offers the same I think and sometimes a really good movie does as well. But it is often the extra descriptions and time spent with a book that allow you to soak deeper into the skin, the voice, the soul of another.
I love that notion of travelling somewhere without leaving home; of experiencing someone else's world for a bit whilst I remain completely and utterly me.
So this is a bit funny...Barry and I both enjoy Ian Rankin's DI Rebus books. When we visited Edinburgh we had to vista the pub where Rebus drinks (the Oxford) and sit in the back room, as he does...
The only time I think I have done a book-scene-in-real-life moment!
Joyce Carol Oates
In my meandering through life and art and books I have arrived again at books. My Thursday Thoughts began in July 2010, and here we are still going, despite a wee break for 6 months.
One of the things I love is that I can still find words about books that charm me, intrigue me and make me celebrate or investigate books further.
One of the marks of a truly good fiction writer is their ability to let you get inside the head of a character. They could be a different gender; older; younger; smarter; wickeder; or any thing else that differentiates us, and yet we can slip into their world and experience it from within, in a way.
Non-fiction biography and autobiography offers the same I think and sometimes a really good movie does as well. But it is often the extra descriptions and time spent with a book that allow you to soak deeper into the skin, the voice, the soul of another.
I love that notion of travelling somewhere without leaving home; of experiencing someone else's world for a bit whilst I remain completely and utterly me.
So this is a bit funny...Barry and I both enjoy Ian Rankin's DI Rebus books. When we visited Edinburgh we had to vista the pub where Rebus drinks (the Oxford) and sit in the back room, as he does...
The only time I think I have done a book-scene-in-real-life moment!
I love how so many books have changed my life forever and in reading them over and over find even more places that change how I think and who I am in the world
ReplyDeleteThe sign of a keeper isn't it Mo? I only have books on my shelf these days that I want re-read, spend time with again, and yes they change and I change and the whole world changes I think...go well.
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