My Reading Life
The blurb:
Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is a voracious reader. Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a lifelong companion, reading has been Conroy's portal to the world, both to the farthest corners f the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any mesmerizing tale of his native South. He has for years kept notebooks in which he records words and expressions, over time creating a vast reservoir of playful turns of phrase, dazzling flashes of description, and snippets of delightful sound, all just for his love of language. But for Conroy reading is not simply a pleasure to be enjoyed in off-hours or a source of inspiration for his own writing. It would hardly be an exaggeration to claim that reading may have saved his life -- and if not his life, then surely his sanity.
In My Reading Life
Review:
As I read My Reading Life
In the first 13 chapters, Conroy writes about the people and books that played pivotal roles in his life.
He begins with his mother, how she encouraged his curiosity and love for books. "Books permitted me to embark on dangerous voyages to a world of painted faces of mandrills and leopards scanning the veldt from the high branches of the baobab tree. There was nothing my mother could not bring me from a library...Whenever she opened a new book, she could escape the exhausting life of a mother of seven and enter into cloistered realms forbidden to a woman born among the mean fields of Georgia."
Conroy goes on to describe how Gone With the Wind
In the chapter The Teacher, Conroy shares how his English teacher Gene Norris served as a generous mentor, father figure and friend. In writing about the friendship that began in high school and grew over 40 years, Conroy gently shows us on how to treat other people and to be true to ourselves. Conroy shares how Norris and the censorship of Catcher in the Rye taught him that "Literature teaches us to be brave. It demands it of us." This chapter had me crying in the subway - it's a nod to dedicated and effective teachers everywhere.
In My Reading Life
ISBN-10: 0385533578 - Hardcover $25
Publisher: Nan A. Talese; First Edition edition (November 2, 2010), 325 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
About the Author:
Pat Conroy is the bestselling author of nine previous books: South of Broad, The Lords of Discipline: A Novel
CONTEST DETAILS:
To enter, please share a person that was important to your love of reading and the book that they'd shared with you.
Rules:
1. Please include your email address, so that I can contact you if you win. No email address, no entry.
2. You must be a follower to join the contest.
3. One entry per household.
The contest is limited to US only. No P.O. boxes. The contest ends at noon on Jan. 20, 2010.
My mom was instrumental in my love of reading. Every night she read me a short story included in a book entitled, 365 Bedtime Stories. I was transported all over the world in different time periods every night.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
I pretty much found books on my own. There was no one in particular who encouraged my love of reading. I pursued reading on my own and enjoy reading very much to this day. It is my most favorite thing to do. Please enter me in contest. Tore923@aol.com
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother was a voracious reader and I always saw her enjoying a good book when I visited in the summer. She shared with me some of her favorites and, when she died, I was given her book collection. Since The Thorn Birds was one of her favorites, it has always held a special place in my heart. Reading it makes me feel closer to her.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
candc320@gmail.com
I have a friend named Wendy who introduced me to Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, and after years of barely any interest in reading, this book got me reading again. I reading it about 4 years ago, and have read more every year, up to this past year where I read 85 books.
ReplyDeletemeredithfl at gmail dot com