Ultimately, one will read when one believes that there is some value in a book which makes the effort to mine that value worth it. Being told ‘you must read this’ does not lead us to read. A curious longing to know new things, to go new places, to think new thoughts – that will motivate readers.

Of course, that just removes the question one step backward. But when one is stricken with the desire to know, there is no vehicle better than a well written book to give us what we seek. This by Emily Dickinson:

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!


The movie Nim’s Island has a wonderfully imaginative illustration of this. The main character, a book consuming Dakota Fanning, Jr., is pictured reading in bed, and her bedroom disappears, leaving her in the desert with the action of the hero about whom she is reading happening on about her. A great scene in a moderately good movie illustrating so well Dickinson’s sentiments.

Technorati Tags: