I had never read this quote before, and I wanted to share it because it articulates a feeling that I constantly have, and I suspect many others have as well:
Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realise the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors. We realise it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented….
[I]n reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.
– C.S. Lewis
From Katy:
I love that. And I do feel that way sometimes.
From Erica:
Amen! I have a friend who truly does not understand who I am–a reader–and who makes fun of the enjoyment I get from the many books I own and borrow. What makes me the saddest about the entire thing, is that she has 3 young children who are great readers themselves, and she doesn’t encourage them, instead making fun of their favorite past-time. I’ve tried to help her understand the importance of books, and how you can understand yourself better through the feelings you have when reading, not to mention the worlds you can visit and the thoughts you are exposed to only through the world of books, but those concepts are lost on her. How tragic!