I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy. And yet I cannot pretend that the reading I have done in my adult years matches in its impact on my soul the reading I did as a child. I still believe in stories. I still forget myself when I am in the middle of a good book. Yet it is not the same. Books are, for me, it must be said, the most important thing; what I cannot forget is that there was a time when they were at once more banal and more essential than that. When I was a child, books were everything. And so there is in me, always, a nostalgic yearning for the lost pleasure of books. It is not a yearning that one ever expects to be fulfilled.
Diane Setterfield
I have always been a reader
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I’m curious to know what books Ms. Setterfield is reading (I assume she’s referring to fiction). Many adults read only book club picks, prize-winning literary novels, and books recommended by reviewers at publications such as The New York Times. Children tend to read more widely (or at least I did) and, outside the classroom, to choose whatever appeals to them. I have known people who rediscovered their youthful love of reading when they picked up a mystery, a romance, a fantasy novel or some other genre (or genre-blending) work.
Love this quote. I have not always been a reader only reading what school required of me, but I can say exactly when books captivated me. As a yellow shirt on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, we worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week while at sea. After my shift, I was bored. Someone suggested I go to the library. We have a library, I thought? I found it and the librarian handed me a particular book as a start. I’d never heard of the book, thanked him, and read it carefully over the next several days. I loved every page of it. I went back and asked the librarian if he had any other books like Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood.”