Sunday, October 24, 2010

The magic of reading


It was early on a Saturday morning in late winter years ago. Breakfast was just over but a girl of ten had withdrawn to the parlor with a book...Then followed one never-to-be-forgotten day, a day filled to the brim with bliss, surprise and high excitement. The reading of this book was a revelation. She had not known before that one could by reading be transported so deeply into another world.

The book was
Little Women. That special joy and delight have been had since from books, and from books only. There has been deep pleasure in solitary places in woods, near the sea, or in the country. There has been joy in friendship and love, and satisfaction in creative work. But the joy and delight in books have gathered all these other joys and carried one into a wider, richer, freer existence; they have re-vitalized life.

Bertha Mahony Miller
Horn Book November/December 1935 Editorial

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