In A Velocity of Being, a collection of letters to young readers, writer Alexander Chee offers reasons as to why he became a reader himself. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Why He Became a Reader”
Alexander Chee has written about growing up with books as a youngster, and he says,
I read now for the same reasons I read then, to feel less alone. But I read for more than that.
Reading teaches me the answers to problems I haven’t had yet, or to problems I didn’t even know how to describe. And when I feel less alone with what troubles me, it is easier to find solutions. A book to me is like a friend, a shelter, advice, an argument with someone who cares enough to argue with me for a better answer than the one we both already have.
Books aren’t just a door to another world. Each book is part of a door to the whole world, a door that always has more behind it, which is why I still can’t think of anything I’d rather do more than read. I love the part where he says something about another answer as opposed to the one that we both already have.
Right, right, an argument. An argument, because that’s what I do when I read. I’m always looking for to prove myself wrong, typically. Like, I want to come in and I want you to upturn or overturn my thoughts and my ideas. I want you to compel me to think differently and have something new at the end of this book.
Yeah, I really like that description. And that passage again was by Alexander Chee in the book A Velocity of Being.
