Is it a good thing to be a voracious reader? We think so. Just take Shakespeare’s notion of the replenished intellect in Love’s Labour’s Lost. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Voracious Reader”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett.
Martha, you remember when we talked about voracious readers?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We had a call from a young woman who wanted to know if there was something negative about that.
Right, and we didn’t see anything negative about being a voracious reader.
Because we’re both voracious readers.
Yeah, yeah. Indiscriminate reader, maybe there’s something wrong with that.
Yeah, but we consume a lot of printed matter.
Yeah.
It goes into our eyes, into our brain, and we’re better for it.
A lot of fiber, yes.
We got a lot of calls and emails about that.
One of the calls that we got, there was a great voicemail left by a fellow named DB in Texas.
And D.B. reminded us that there’s a quote in Shakespeare that applies here.
And it’s from Act 4, Scene 2, and Love’s Labor Lost.
And I wanted to share this with you.
Great.
Okay.
He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book.
He hath not eat paper, as it were.
He hath not drunk ink.
His intellect is not replenished.
He is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts.
And that really, for me, encapsulates what the reading experience is like.
It is an ingestion.
I am eating this book, more or less.
It is going to my brain.
It is fodder for everything that I think and do.
Right, right.
And that’s the root of voracious, too.
Yeah, perfect.
Devouring.
We also got an email from Michael J. Sheehan.
He was reminded of a quote from Francis Bacon on this topic.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
That is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read but not curiously,
And some few to be read wholly and with diligence and attention.
Perfect. I love it.
So here’s to voracious readers.
Here’s to voracious readers.
We know we have a huge audience of readers.
If you’ve got something to share about books or language,
Give us a call 877-929-9673.
And if there’s a particular quote or passage that you love,
We’d like to see it.
Send it an email to words@waywordradio.org.
