Reflections on Readingby S.E. Hinton
There are a lot of good writers out there, so it is always flattering to get a letter from a kid who says, “I read all the time and your books are the best.” But nothing compares to one who says, “I never read a book in my life until I read your book. And now I like to read.” That is the most satisfying thing a writer can hear; that you’ve helped others to enjoy the biggest influence in your life—reading.
It’s been said that if you don’t read you’re not any better off than if you can’t read. That doesn’t begin to cover it. Reading is the closest thing we’ll have to a mind-meld until we discover the planet Vulcan. There will never be a computer as interactive as a book.
With a book, you can enter a mind that existed a thousand years ago. Use someone’s imagination to bungee-jump a thousand years into the future. Experience more lifetimes than the most intrepid adventurer.
I know what it’s like to grow up in poverty in Brooklyn. I’ve been a bull-dancer in ancient Crete. I’ve experienced an entire life in fourteenth-century Norway. Rode on a cattle drive; grew up with Alexander the Great.
Learning not how to do something but how to feel something; recognizing self in the most foreign other. Reading has been one of the biggest influences in my life—not only in my profession, but my thoughts, actions, values. Knowing I’ve opened this door for others will always be my most rewarding accomplishment.
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What Books Do Students in Each GradeRead Most Often, Overall and by Gender?
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