'How and Why' I Read

By Mary Reiman

So why do I love to read? For me it’s about finding that one phrase that speaks to me. Yes, sometimes it is simply one phrase, one sentence, or even just one word. Isn’t that amazing? One phrase that makes me say I LOVED that book. It inspired me. It helped make me think differently. It gave me courage.   

I did not grow up in a house filled with the classics. However, we had the “How and Why Library” set a salesman sold to my mom in the '50s. (Yes, she also purchased Encyclopedia Britannica in the '60s). That set of ‘How and Why’ books opened up a new world to me. One volume was mythology, one was science and my favorite was literature, which included the poem my sister and I memorized, ‘The Swing’ by Robert Louis Stevenson. (“How do you like to go up in the swing? Up in the air so blue. Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do!...")

Since I was reading long before technology ever allowed me to keep my favorite quotes on my phone, I would often write those phrases in blank books or journals. Of all the things I did not keep when I moved from house to house, I did keep those partially filled journals. Many years would go by without reading them, but I knew they were there. 

One of the happiest moments of retirement is that I now take the time to go back and read those thoughts, those reflections, those phrases. And they conjure up the memory of where I was when I was loving those sentences - where I was physically, where I was mentally and where I was spiritually - the state of mind I was in that led me to have those ‘if I could only write like that’ moments. 

Sometimes I read to learn about the lives and thoughts and feelings of others. Sometimes I read to envision other lands and places, and sometimes to have my own world reinforced (windows and mirrors). I read to gather new ideas, or to take solace when I cannot articulate something at the moment but an author's words express what I am feeling. My favorite quotes change over time, actually with every new book comes a new favorite! Does that happen to you?

As I write my blogs, I’ll probably always include a sentence or two from the book I'm reading at the moment. They have framed my world, my story, and I hope in some way they will speak to you. My favorite one today is “People don’t come into our lives by accident.” from Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. More thoughts about that sentence in another blog post!

I believe we’ve all found phrases that guide and sustain us. What are your favorites?