How Reading Changed My Life

by Anna Quindlen

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. The book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. —HENRY DAVID THOREAU

There was a club chair in our house, a big one, with curled arms and a square ottoman; it sat in one corner of the living room, catty-corner to the fireplace, with a barrel table next to it. In my mind I am always sprawled in it, reading with my skinny, scabby legs slung over one of its arms.

Reading became a democratic act, making it possible for the many to teach themselves what the few had once learned from tutors.

“I can’t read any longer.” The words were sad and sonorous as a church bell, and I felt that she had pronounced a sort of epitaph upon herself, and I felt that she felt it too: I can’t read any longer.

One of my big fears.