But reading! That I could do. When I read, I felt smart. And in reading, I was never lonely, the way I sometimes felt in real life. Reading did not lead me astray. The words were clear, and if I didn’t understand them, it wasn’t because I didn’t hear them correctly. No one cared if I reread (asked the book to repeat, that is) multiple times. And people mostly left me alone when my nose was buried in a book. Reading was always safe and always good company.
