Reading is a form of liberation

This article from The Times made me smile. I particularly liked these quotes;

We’ve all been transported by the power of books, willingly kidnapped, bundled up and taken to distant lands and different times. With each abduction, we’ve returned unharmed, but somehow different.

So, a story has the power not only to place you in another life, but to connect you to otherwise indifferent individuals. With enough books and enough people, you build a shared culture.

Learning to read and write has the amazing capacity to change lives. An education can increase your income, setting you on the road out of poverty. An education teaches you about disease, helping to reduce maternal and infant rates of mortality. An education makes a person more confident, more responsible, and allows them to contribute more to the lives of those around them and their country.

This article, also from The Times about Sophie Dahl describes why she loved libraries as a child, and it connected to my childhood passion for them,

I loved the sanctity of the library, the still, dry whisper of it. I loved the choice and certainty; the ritual of picking a book.