Of Books, Tension, and The Mind on the Page…

Presently I am reading Anuradha Roy‘s novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing .

As with any good novel, interactions between the main characters are strained.

Tension abounds, but not in a melodramatic way.

The story moves with a nice speed for an opening.

I look forward each evening–a hallmark that I have found a jewel of a novel–to settling into bed, reading and reconnecting with the characters.

As I grow older, this pastime, that of reading a book I love, brings more joy than watching television dramas or movies.

I will always like watching movies, and television dramas on dvd. I hate the interruption of advertisements.

But for me a story told on screen rarely provides a view of the characters’ internal worlds, which is the very reason I love to read.

During one of my MFA classes a professor said, “A book is the mind on the page.”

I could not have said it better myself.

Books reflect not only the minds and hearts of the characters telling the story, but also that of the writer who created the characters whose movements both emotional and physical display the author’s drama.

Reading is one of the most intimate acts in which we can engage.

Ultimately it brings us closer to ourselves, allows the reader a backdrop on which to project aspects of ourselves through our identification with, if not the protagonist(s) and or their surrounding cast.

Though players of a novel or story may part ways at the story’s end, the best written works deliver a climax and denouement revealing not only the choices made, but the motives behind characters’ closing actions.

Separation with nothing said or offered in the way of good-bye is not an option in the most engaging works.

If only human relationships worked that way more often.

Perhaps this is why despite the proliferation of various forms of entertainment that hold hostage our attention, books have remained.

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Do you read novels?

If so, how often?

What is the best thing about reading fiction?

What are you reading now?

What drew you in to reading the work you are presently reading?

What caused you to stop reading the last or any book you abandoned?