“Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books”
By Hwang Bo-Reum
Bloomsbury Publishing
When bibliophiles see the warm-hued, cozy, book- and cat-crammed cover illustration of Hwang Bo-Reum’s “Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books,” their likely response is some variation of Liz Lemon’s famous line, “I want to go to there.”
But this scene of quiet pleasure may lure non-readers, too — and frankly, they’re probably the best audience for this Korean author’s collection of short essays. The book offers approaches to carving out time in a busy life for reading, and presents anecdotes that show why a varied book diet will probably serve you best.
Of course, you may have already spotted the book’s inherent paradox: is a non-reader likely to pick up a book about reading? In the words of the prophetic Magic 8 Ball, “Reply hazy.” But if you have a person on your gift list who wants reading to be a more consistent part of their day-to-day life, “Every Day” offers up a solid option.
Seasoned readers will find considerably less to marvel over and be surprised by. (Always have a book in your bag, in case you find yourself waiting somewhere? Please. I once snuck Henry James’s “The Portrait of a Lady” into a University of Michigan football game via a pocket in my marching band uniform.) The “tips” offered by Bo-Reum — who also wrote the bestselling novel “Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop” — will feel obvious to her fellow longtime book addicts.
Yet the stories that accompany them do often have subtle value and impact for all. In “Read on the Train,” for instance, Bo-Reum talks about how reading during her commute, while working long hours at her post-college corporate job, helped her navigate burnout. “It was during that dark period that reading, which until then was more of a hobby, played a more significant role in my life. … With my life reduced to a cog in a wheel, the rare moments I had to myself became even more precious. Instead of spacing out in dark tunnels, I turned my attention to books, hoping they would heal my damaged soul and my empty heart.”
They did, of course, and the roadmap Bo-Reum provides for the aspiring reader includes reading a bestseller; a small book; a big book; using a timer to build your (atrophied) attention muscles; reading poetry; reading classics; collecting quotes from what you read; and scores more ideas. No essay is longer than three pages, and when read in succession, the book feels like a series of challenges, each validated by Bo-Reum’s experiences. (Ideally, though, a reader would dip in and out of the book at a more leisurely pace, whenever they’re ready for another “challenge.”)
Bo-Reum also anticipates the objections or challenges non-readers will raise, such as, “Why read novels when it’s a made-up story?”
Bo-Reum lays out her case by explaining, “Novels don’t tell us ‘how to live’ but show us that ‘it’s possible to live in a different way.’ It’s easy to get stuck in our narrow perspective on life and put pressure on ourselves. What we see or hear becomes the limits of our horizons.”
Sounds right to me.
The author also gives nascent book-readers permission to not finish books that aren’t speaking to them, and talks about the civic benefits of book clubs: “The biggest charm … is how they encourage a difference in opinions. At the beginning, it felt uncomfortable to be openly disagreeing with each other, especially when the debate got a little heated. … But soon, I came to realise how valuable this process is. Once I realised how I was holding on to certain convictions without any basis, I fell deeper into the joy of thinking critically.”
This is, perhaps, one of the best and most persuasive reasons to encourage broader book-reading — through “Every Day” and other means — within our populace, which statistically reads less and less each year. Books not only educate us and cultivate deep critical thinking; they also provide a cultural means of staying connected to our humanity and to each other, across political differences.
God knows we need that now more than ever.
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