Thursday Thoughts...

“A book is a voice in your ear; the message is – while you are reading it – for you alone. Reading a book is surely the most intimate experience we can have of the inside of another human being’s mind”. 

 Margaret Atwood

I like the focus in this quote on the intimacy of the book, and  the intimacy of reading.

It's funny how intimate and private you can be, even when reading in a public setting. Reading a book truly does feel like a close encounter with another person - the author; and another world - the world within the book.  

I am not sure I have ever pondered whether this gives me an experience of another human being's mind, but in many ways I guess it does.

I was reading some essays by a Scottish poet (Kenneth Steven) this morning and I constantly stopped to reflect on the beauty of his descriptions; as well as on the manner in which he brought these observations into what were 'ah-ha' type moments. Where you simply stopped in your tracks to appreciate the glorious way they had expressed things. How readily they had created a sense of association and shared experience; yet described it in the most perfect of ways.

And I did begin to think of what a lovely person this man must be in order for him to see this way, to write this way and to share it.

So perhaps, I do feel as if I have had some sort of intimate experience with his mind...