Year of Reading Books – A Dream
“I read slowly, savoring each book one by one. I had all the time in the world then. And there was no danger I’d run out of books, no matter how much I read…”
from Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, translated by Eric Ozawa
This morning I was reading. I was reading because it’s the thing I most wanted to do. I was feeling…tired and my brain was a bit mushy trying to think about what fine blog posts I could offer you, my friends. So I picked up one of the books I’m reading. This lovely little nugget of a book that I found at The Strand Bookstore in Manhattan when I was last there in December, entitled Days at the Morisaki Bookshop. (OH! I just found out that there’s a part two…More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop!!!)
I read about five pages and was so filled up and inspired, I stopped and came into my office to write this post! I love when this happens…when the magic of literature wraps me up and reminds me why I’m a writer, why I’m a reader, and what dreams of mine are wrapped in books. I’d also found the quote that inspired this post! Thank you, Yagisawa!
It’s been a dream of mine to take one entire year and just read books that are in my house. No buying new books (which I’ve done many times…), but reading books that I already have. And there are many, many books that I have on my shelves…Books like Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson, like Moments of Being by Virginia Woolf, like 33 things every girl should know about women’s history edited by Tonya Bolden…and this little treasure of a book…Women’s Thoughts for Women arranged by Rose Porter.
I found this book…well, I can’t remember where I found it, but my goodness…isn’t it a gem?
” A real fine lady does not wear clothes that flare in people’s eyes, or use importunate scents, or make a noise as she moves; she is something refined, and graceful, and charming, and never obtrusive…”
First Sunday – Women’s Thoughts for Women chosen and arranged by Rose Porter, David. C. Cook Publishing Company, Elgin, Illinois, (C) 1891
I’m both appalled and humbled by this quote…by all the words of (so-called…interesting, historical, cultural….questionable!) wisdom in the pages…Quotes from famous women, set to the different months of the year, include Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Jean Ingelow, and Christina Rossetti. And this little ditty…Look – a companion book for men! This book, also compiled by Rose Porter, is jam-packed with all male figures/writers.
And who, pray-tell is Rose Porter? Wikipedia knows!
Rose Porter (December 6, 1845 – September 10, 1906) was an American religious novelist who wrote or edited more than 70 books. Porter was born in New York, New York, December 6, 1845. Her father, David Collins Porter, was a wealthy New Yorker. He died in 1845, while Rose was an infant. Her mother, Rose Anne Hardy, was the daughter of an English army officer. Porter’s early years were spent in New York and in the family’s summer home in Catskills-on-the-Hudson. She was educated in New York, with the exception of a year abroad. After completing her education, she and her mother made their home in New Haven, Connecticut. After the mother died, Porter kept her home in New Haven, where she lived with her servants. Porter’s first success was Summer Drift-Wood for the Winter Fire (1870). Notwithstanding the fact that she was an invalid for years, Porter was a writer of quiet religious romance, publishing or editing 70 volumes. She also wrote or edited prayer books, devotional exercises, and compilations of material for calendars and diaries. Rose Porter died in New Haven, Connecticut, September 10, 1906.
Interesting – that her father was also the publisher of the two books I’ve mentioned here…and perhaps more? Even though he passed when she was an infant, his publishing company continued on? A quick interwebs search and BOOM – this publishing company STILL EXISTS! David C. Cook is a thriving Christian publishing company!
From their website: Our Founder’s Life-Changing Legacy: In 1875, David Caleb Cook began publishing pamphlets of lessons and songs that equipped local churches for ministry to children displaced by the Great Chicago Fire. Generations later, we’re passionate about God’s work in and through local churches everywhere, engaging all ages along a journey of lifetime faith.
Well, I’ll be! Look at this incredible bundle of information we’ve discovered together simply by me choosing a book off a shelf in my office. This is why dedicating a year to only reading books would clearly include following any sleuthical (new work alert) stirrings, and would be a dreamy, intensive, educational, emotional endeavour.
That said, to clarify, a year of reading books would include writing about the experience, the books, and whatever else bursts forth. It would mean that my creative writing would be bound to the books I’d be reading. It’s a fat, juicy dream…and one that I don’t think I’m quite ready to live yet. But…it’s there, alive and well and waiting.
Do you have a dream like this too? I know many folks who when they retire, they read ferociously. I also know people who work full-time and manage to read a book a week…or more. Reading truly shifts our body and mind’s perception of time. And Yagisawa is right when he writes there is no danger of running out of books…to read or listen to.
One thing that is significant about reading books ‘on my shelves’ (or the floor, or the bedside table…) is that there are books that I’ve always wanted to read, but for some reason (many reasons!), I haven’t. These include those books that I scoop up at second-hand stores; the ‘classics’ that a part of me purchased because it believed it would make me look smarter for having them on my shelves…Take for example, The Dubliners by James Joyce. I’ve had this book on my shelf for years…maybe decades? Recently, whilst watching a film at WIFF, entitled The Room Next Door (the new film by starring Julienne Moore and Tilda Swinton), Swinton’s character kept quoting this passage from a short story written by Joyce called ‘The Dead’. I looked on my shelf…and low and behold, there waved The Dubliners. I picked it up, opened it, realized it was a short story collection (!), and in fact, the final story in the collection was ‘The Dead’! I promptly read it…falling into its richness…its humanity…its shadows and secrets. Damn. I’d never read James Joyce before. And now…I feel enriched having his voice in my heart centre…seeping into my bloodstream like a good virus. And…the magic of books – how they know exactly what we need from them…how they teach and support and challenge us…is as alive as any living thing! Trusting in the magic for an entire year…whoa, mama. That’d be something.
This is why I dream about a year of reading books…writing about reading books, writing about books…and fattening my mind and body and spirit on the gifts that each writer, each story would deliver.
