Came across this today while reading. It reminds me of why I read, why I’ve devoted my life to literature in one way or another. Enjoy!
There is no single way to read well, though there is a prime reason why we should read. Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found? If you are fortunate, you encounter a particular teacher who can help, yet finally you are alone, going on without further mediation. Reading well is one of the great pleasures solitude can afford you, because it is, at least in my experience, the most healing of pleasures. It returns you to otherness, whether in yourself or in your friends, or in those who may become friends. Imaginative literature is otherness, and as such alleviates loneliness. We read not only because we cannot know enough people, but because friendship is so vulnerable, so likely to diminish or disappear, overcome by space, time, imperfect sympathies, and all the sorrows of familial and passional life. –Harold Bloom, How to Read and Why, p. 19
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Bloom at a reading in Miami. He signed my copy of “The Book of J.” He is truly a genius. Cheers!
Beautiful! And so true.