”A knowledge that another has felt as we have felt, and seen things, even as they are little things, not much otherwise than we have seen them, will continue to the end to be one of life’s choicest pleasures. ”
( Robert Louis Stevenson)
As a young child I missed a lot of school with chronic bronchitis. Being extremely lucky to have a mother who fed me books by the bucketful and a teacher who sent reading home I found reading magical and a place of enduring friendship. Robert Louis Stevenson was a personal hero and this quotation sums up why I feel reading is so important: it gives us a chance to be more than ourselves; it gives us a chance to be transported; it gives us the freedom to accept our connection to others whilst accepting our singularity.
- Reading changes minds.
- It’s mind travel…
- It shows us how to thrive and survive.
This section of the blog will be devoted to writing that helps us discover or uncover who we are and why we are. For if books have value, if they do ‘reflect life’ then they must assist us in being human – imaginatively and creatively !
- Post your favourite quotations.
- Argue about writers and their words
- Recommend unmissable reads
- Talk about books that ‘find ‘ us somehow ?
Here’s a poem I found years ago and has ‘found’ me back at pivotal moments of my life:
The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours, and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.
For the peace of the years
In the long green grass
Will be yours, and yours and yours
Leo Marks, Code Poem for French Resistance.