What is reading for?
A wonderful quotation about what reading can do for and to us. Not a question of clocking up facts or...
Doors opening wherever she turned
Alan Bennett was born in Leeds and I liked this quotation chalked on a board in a café there. It's...
Forgetting and forgetfulness
I like this questioning of cause versus effect in the writing - and reading - of novels. Does writing and...
Reading as road
Another metaphor describing how this young boy was progressing as his older brother taught him to read and write in...
How to read a book in a language you don’t know (I)
When Luiz went to Brazil recently, I gave him a copy of a Caroline story for his two great-nieces. Most...
Book as mirror I
A great riposte, of course, and true to a large extent. Having dismissed a book, it sometimes happens that I...
Unexpected ignorance, unexpected knowledge
Maggie Tulliver is a girl whose brightness and spirit are constantly curtailed and nearly crushed. Throughout her childhood she is...
The history of books
An idea so intrinsic to reading books, particularly those you love and remember, that I had never consciously thought of...
Books lost and gained
In Leigh Fermor's enchanting walk across Europe, he find islands of great hospitality where he can rest and recuperate from...
Riding the spine of a book
The book as a kind of flying broomstick or galloping horse taking the boy into story land.
'In my schoolboy...
A gallery of readers
To celebrate World Book Day, please visit this image gallery by the photographer Steve McCurry, a beautiful...
Reading as travel
The Rat is a street-savvy kid in a barely known children's book by the author of the infinitely famous
© Beatrice Otto 2019 - design & content unless otherwise stated - all rights reserved