The Joy of Reading by Sandi Somers

I'm a voracious reader and have always been. When I was young, I became so absorbed in my reading that Mom said, “The house could fall down, and you wouldn’t even know it.” 

I experienced what CS Lewis said, that through stories, we can step into other worlds, to “see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts.” He went on to write that “Literature enlarges our being by admitting us to experiences not our own. They may be beautiful, terrible, awe-inspiring, exhilarating, pathetic, comic, or merely piquant….In reading great Literature...I see with a thousand eyes…I transcend myself.”[i] 

This month’s reflective topic brings to the fore our exhilarating reading experiences, our choices, what we’ve absorbed, and how reading impacts our writing.   

The variety of genres I read in my early days developed and reflected some of my key interests:

·       Thornton Wilder books from my earliest reading days enhanced my love of nature                                  

·       Fairy and folk tales expanded my imagination, including the love of the three Billy goats trip, trapping across the bridge

·       Children’s Bible stories heightened my love and understanding of Scriptures

·       Elementary readers brought the world to me with their true stories, including the Yangtse River flood of 1931, and “Dale of the Mounties”, how a Mounties’ dog discovered Eileen Simpson, a young lost girl sleeping in a grain field (a story from my own area of Alberta)

·       Missionary biographies from our church library developed my love of both missions and biography

·       The history of scientific and medical inventors such as Einstein and Pasteur stretched my thinking into different disciplines

·       Fiction in high school, including Tale of Two Cities, Swiss Family Robinson, and Tolstoy’s stories, expanded my love of literature 

Today, I read books from our InScribe writers, picking them up at Fall Conference or ordering online. Friends loan me their favourites or suggest books and genres they’ve enjoyed. I place many on hold from our Calgary Public Library, or from the nearby Ambrose University library—so as to keep my expenses down. Then we have several “Little Free Libraries” in our neighbourhood, and I’ve enjoyed reading books I wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. I have too many favourite authors to enumerate. 

Currently I’m reading—or have just finished most of Terrie Todd’s books, including Even if We Cry; Karen Stiller's The Minister’s Wife; and Jacob: The Wrestler, by Liz Chua, (Liz belongs to my InScribe local writers’ group.) Can you believe I also just finished two Nancy Drew books from a “Little Free Library”? 

* * *

And now comes the question: How does reading impact my writing? Let me count some ways (riffed thanks to Elizabeth Barrett Browning). I read: 

For absorbing genres that I write. Memoirs, personal essays, devotions, and Biblical fiction. Annie Dillard said, “[The writer] is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, because that is what he will know.”[i]

For giving me specific writing strategies, through writing “how-to” books.

For ideas.  Many ideas crop up as I read my Bible and meditate on how the Lord has spoken to me through that day’s scripture.  

For style, phrasing and vivid description. As I read, I often place a check mark in the margins where I discover beautiful writing or a thoughtful quote. From there, I return with relish to copy in my “quotes” journal. Most recently these books have inspired me with their beautiful language: A Surgeon in the Village: An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa by Tony Bartelme, and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

For research and background material. Sometimes the Lord brings to mind a book I own. Scanning through the Table of Contents, a topic leaps out. There, I find what I need and what our Lord wants me to process and write.

For instructing others. Last year I taught homeschooling kids from Grades 6 to 9 and used the wonderful book, Fiction Writer’s Workshop, by Josip Novakovich. Though aimed at fiction, it has excellent strategies for nonfiction, too.

For keeping in touch with other InScribe writers, in our InScribe Writers Online blog, our Professional Blog, and FellowScript.

How satisfying is a reading life! I conclude with Annie Dillard who summarized: “a life spent reading—that is a good life.”[iii]

Image: Word on Fire from Unsplash

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[i] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/lewis-on-why-we-enjoy-reading/

[ii] Annie Dillard, The Writing Life, https://bookriot.com/annie-dillard-quotes/)

[iii] Annie Dillard, The Writing Life, https://bookriot.com/annie-dillard-quotes/)