Our Reading Lives Reflection

How does reading provide salvation and feed your resilience?

“Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds.”

—Roxane Gay

Dr. Roxane Gay is a personal role model and inspiration to me. I’ve followed her on social media for many years. I appreciate her bold honesty and brilliant way with words. When selecting epigraphs for The Joy of Reading (co-written with Teri Lesesne), I knew I wanted to include Dr. Gay’s thoughts about reading as salvation.

Overwhelmed by the political and social turmoil, natural disasters, and the stressful demands of work and home life, reading for pleasure can offer salvation and peace. For caring, earnest, and aware people, the current strife and unrest is upsetting and agitating. How can we help? What should we be doing right now? Do we have the ability to do anything to help?

Sitting in a cozy chair and reading a book feels selfish and indulgent when the world caroms and careens from one catastrophe to another.

I’ve been dissatisfied with my reading life for the past few years. I’m not reading as much as I have in the past, and I still find it challenging to set aside consistent time for reading. I started this reading reflection project as a public way to reflect on my reading habits, remind myself why reading matters so much, and celebrate the joys of a life spent reading.

Inconsistently reading means that I have missed out on some great books. For example, I’m finally settling in to read Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, her note by note re-imagining of David Copperfield, set in Appalachia. This Pulitzer winner is a popular book club pick and universally acclaimed, but I’ve been reluctant to pick up a book that is 500 pages long in several years. I’m enjoying Demon and his companions tremendously, and I regret waiting to read it. I’ve been missing out!

But as my husband reminds me, “A book is new to anyone who hasn’t read it, yet.” You don’t have to be first edition fan to appreciate and celebrate a great book.

The dramatic reduction in how much I’ve been reading has affected my mental health, my general cheerfulness, and my feelings of hope. I recognize that it is not just reading that I miss. I miss who I am when I’m reading more. I truly believe that I’m a better version of myself when I’m reading all of the time.

I have a busy brain. I talk to an excessive degree and have learned (am learning!) how to be less of a conversational narcissist. I’m always planning, obsessing, or worrying about something. My brain will find topics that consume my thinking, and these topics can be negative, self-destructive, or exhausting if I allow it. Reading has always taken me out of myself and given me the thoughts and experiences of others to think about instead of my own concerns. It’s not escapism from reality. It’s considering a reality different from my own. Reading provides me with salvation because it helps me imagine and identify explanations and solutions for my own experiences through the words of countless others.

I do not need to worry so much. Demon has worse problems than me and he’s figuring it out. I can human for another day.

Even from my youngest years, I read for the vicarious experience of walking into someone else’s life and learning what they could teach me. I read to learn about things I didn't know about in my limited experience. As a teenager and young adult, I read to expand my horizons beyond my small, suburban upbringing. Even now, I keep reading to learn and grow from the experiences of characters and real people. Reading feeds my empathy and my curiosity about life. I’ve always read because I’m fascinated with people and all of the ways our stories unfold.

In this current era, when many folks tell me they are not reading much—we may cognitively and emotionally need to, “imagine different endings and better possible worlds,” to keep ourselves hopeful and moving forward into uncertainty.

After all, readers travel into the unknown with every page turn.

I hope you take some time to enjoy reading for your own pleasure this week. Consider how reading has helped you to become less burdened by personal worries and more empathetic. How has reading offered you the salvation that Dr. Gay describes? How does your reading life continue to feed your hope for better possible worlds?

Happy Reading!

-Donalyn