In John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Steinbeck contrasts two of his characters, and I love this imagery:
And the books that came into the house, some of them secretly–well, Samuel rode lightly on top of a book and he balanced happily among ideas the way a man rides white rapids in a canoe. But Tom got into a book, crawled and groveled between the covers, tunneled like a mole among the thoughts, and came up with the book all over his face and hands.
Part 3, Chapter 23
I think I’ve always been like Samuel: riding along a book (especially novels) without really thinking about them. A few months ago, my husband called me a “page-turner”: as long as I’m turning pages I don’t care what I’m reading, and as a result, I can read two pages and not remember what I just read. The bottom line is, I read too fast.
When my husband pointed this out to me, I decided it was time to read more carefully. I’ve been trying to “crawl between covers” lately — that’s one reason I’ve been giving book reports on this blog.
How do you read a book: do you ride the rapids or tunnel like a mole? If neither, is there another image that you can apply to yourself?
It depends on the book. Some don’t merit more than coasting along the top. Or sometimes I have to skim the top to get to the end, but I go back and swim under the stream the second time through. I love the images you found. Maybe I’ll print them off and use them in class this week.
Most of the time I stumble and fall through a book until about halfway, at which point I turn around and go back home.