I found myself becoming resentful of the little house and its unwillingness to adapt to the realities of the city growing up around it. I was frustrated that the house had to have it all quiet and peaceful in the country, like an idyllic pastoral life was the only life worth living.
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The kids are back in school. Here and there, the trees have begun to change their colors. Though Labor Day is still a week away, summer has reached its end–and so has summer reading. Over the past three months, we’ve all ready deeply both for work and for pleasure–and we each want to share the most provocative texts, old and new, fiction and non-fiction alike, we’ve come across.
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Participants tell us that one of the most magical aspects of Books@Work takes them well beyond the book – it’s the social interaction that comes from the discussion and the comparison of ideas and perspectives. For many of us, the closest experience we have to sharing the impact of a good book happens when we read to children. The wonder and awe occasioned by a particularly well-loved book leaves a lovely and lasting glow. I’ve been reflecting lately on the books I shared with my children that have left their mark – on them and on me.
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At Books@Work, we exhort people to leave their positions at the door and to enter the seminar space ready to engage as individuals. And it works. Like Alice and the Fawn, in that short hour, our participants openly enjoy each other’s company in ways the workplace does not normally occasion: free of hierarchy and preconceived ideas. But unlike Alice and the Fawn, as they return to the workplace and resume their “names” and roles, that powerful leveling experience lives on.
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What makes the adventures of a precocious Victorian child so long-lived? It’s certainly not the novel’s’ universalism–most of its jokes are highly-specific to Victorian politics and culture. It might be the book’s iconic imagery. Who can forget the hookah-smoking caterpillar? the flamingo-and-hedgehog croquet game?
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To say that we spend time reflecting on our reading experiences would be an understatement. But, when, at the beginning of the month I asked about experiences with audiobooks, everyone was surprised. Like myself, they hadn’t given much thought to their experiences with this medium, though, upon reflection, nearly everybody had something to say about it. For most of us, audiobooks were road trip staples, a necessary part of a family vacation that, in retrospect, seemed as integral to our experiences as the destination itself.
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Summer offers an opportunity to read widely and deeply – not only because reading is illuminating and invigorating, but because we may even find more time to dig into a longer or more challenging book. Without good summer reading, we face the possibility of a summer slide. As fall officially descends later this month, let’s commit to continuing reading substantive, challenging, thought-provoking books every season of the year.
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