But the desires that are cultivated by books (and other forms of stories, including film, songs, and especially commercials) can pull us toward the good life—or toward false visions of the good life (as Gustave Flaubert shows in romance-reading Emma Bovary).36 Reading well entails discerning which visions of life are false and which are good and true—as well as recognizing how deeply rooted these visions are in language.
