alone with all the other voices vying for attention in your head…
not to mention the countless others teeming up from the words nailed to the page…
I’ve often experienced reading as a very noisy internal activity. The zen bit comes when I put the book aside, snuff those voices out and am left not with a word but with a sound (on a good day and with a good book): the satisfying sound of having grown richer.
It’s hard to be alone with a very good book as you are in that world with the characters…unless it’s Dr Seuss in which case you think you are the characters.
You’re absolutely right, InfiniteZip. The best way to be alone is to not feel alone, and to be to able channel the experience of a book in such a way that it is there with you like a good friend.
Yes Lorna’s Voice, exactly. For what you are feeling illustrates, I believe, Franzen’s point superbly. What better way could there be when alone than experiencing a feeling such as yours when reading a wonderful book?
Kurt is the author of the romance noir novel Rainy Season, the dark thriller novel The Good Kill, the literary fiction novel Inside the Skin, and the poetry collection Short Verses & Other Curses, among other works. He is also the screenwriter/executive producer of the short film Leave, adapted from his short story of the same name, and which premiered at the LA Femme International Film Festival in 2018.
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KURT★BRINDLEY 
alone with all the other voices vying for attention in your head…
not to mention the countless others teeming up from the words nailed to the page…
I’ve often experienced reading as a very noisy internal activity. The zen bit comes when I put the book aside, snuff those voices out and am left not with a word but with a sound (on a good day and with a good book): the satisfying sound of having grown richer.
Love your site more and more, Kurt. :)
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Yes. Being in the moment, just you and the book … and all the wonderful world that comes with it.
I’m so glad you enjoy it here, joanbarbarasimon. Once again you’ve managed to amplify my happiness.
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It’s hard to be alone with a very good book as you are in that world with the characters…unless it’s Dr Seuss in which case you think you are the characters.
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You’re absolutely right, InfiniteZip. The best way to be alone is to not feel alone, and to be to able channel the experience of a book in such a way that it is there with you like a good friend.
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Yet, when I’m reading a wonderful book, I feel like I’m with the characters–not alone at all. ;)
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Yes Lorna’s Voice, exactly. For what you are feeling illustrates, I believe, Franzen’s point superbly. What better way could there be when alone than experiencing a feeling such as yours when reading a wonderful book?
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It doesn’t happen real often. But when it does, WOW!
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