Sonderbooks Book Review of Where Books Fall Open

Reviewed June 23, 2004.
David R. Godine, Publisher, Boston, 2001. 152 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (418.4 WHE).

This book is a selection of poems and essays about the delights of reading, accompanied by beautiful paintings of people enjoying books. I read this book little by little, with a selection or two at a time. It brings smiles and meditations about how good it is to be a reader.

Here’s a nice bit from Carol Weston: “What a privilege to know that if I have an extra hour, anywhere, anytime, I can spend it with Edith Wharton or Oscar Wilde. What a comfort that if I want to be with Anna Karenina or Harry Potter, there they are, ready and waiting.”

Another remark in the spirit of thankfulness by Elizabeth Hardwick: “It is fortunate to have had all my life this passion for studying and enjoying literature and for trying to add a bit to it as interestingly as I can. This passion has given me much joy, it has given me friends who care for the same things, it has given me employment, escape from boredom, everything. The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.”

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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

****Where Books Fall Open*

A Reader's Anthology of Wit and Wisdom

paintings by Bascove