I read this memoir about reading earlier in the week. I’ve included some passages that speak to the perils and delights of reading.

My reading has sometimes got me into trouble. (5)

And even then, I wanted to live a storybook life. (9)

She was my first heroine. I thought her life was high romance. My mother did not. She wanted to shield me from suffering, she wanted me never to have to go through what she’d gone through; she wanted me to have a boring life. Throughout my childhood, this outraged me. Never to have adventures? Never to do extraordinary things? Never to take risks? When I once wished aloud that I could go to prison because at least it would be interesting, my mother shuddered. (9-10)

If only I’d spent my twenties trying to be more like Neely than Anne. If only I’d read other books. (175)