I cringe, recently even, when people make comments about people who love reading: "He lives in her own little world." "She lives inside the pages of a book." "They live within a make-believe world."
That's not it at all. It makes the reader sound like a disillusioned geek on the outside of town, as though he has leprosy or something.
Literature and the reading of it is not---I said NOT!---about getting away from the world or living apart from the world or isolating yourself into a make-believe world.
Literature and reading is all about understanding the world, accepting the world we live in and our place in it, reaching a higher chapter of being, and helping us make the world better than we see it outside our glass tower. It's all about turning the page and bridging the gap.
If anyone still doubts this theory, go see a performance of Man of La Mancha . Cervantes' idealism is also mocked...and nobly defended.
A very dear girl in my life loves to read. She also lives in a very dysfunctional family with little time to herself. There is never enough money. There is a drinking problem in the house and lots of arguing.
So she reads. And, yes, while she's reading it allows her some "myspace" and peace and takes her outside of her surroundings if only for a little while. But the real treasure and fruit in reading is that by being introduced to a variety of characters (good and bad) and circumstances (good and bad) and situations (good and bad) and events (good and bad), she walks away from those books equipped to handle real life.
Those books show her in a more postive light reasons why people do what they do. Those books teach her to understand why people react the way they react. And, most importantly, those books help her to realize that nothing that has happened in her life thus far is through any fault of hers. Those books teach her to understand how and why things happen and to, hopefully, prevent her from making the same mistakes. In short, books broaden the world around us.
It's not at all about living in another world. It's all about dealing with the world in which we live and making it a better place if we can. Sometimes it only allows life to be more bearable, but we have to crawl before we could walk.
Books are the bait that hooks the fish. They are not what the fish lives on.
Books add spice to our lives and they nourish us, but they are not the meat that sustains us through job losses, divorces, deaths, etc.
Books are a reflection of ourselves. They are not the flesh and blood on the other side of the bathroom countertop.
Still books are quite real and, indeed, have a life of their own. Reading allows us to see and hear what's in another person's brain. It allows us to feel their emotions. Books are really the first virtual reality that ever existed, instead of the one-sided view you see on television, books give you a three-dimensional (even a five-dimensional) viewing. Front row seat, if you ask me.
Please remember this when you see your child sitting a corner reading. Don't view him as being lazy, self-centered, isolated, or one-dimensional. At that moment he is so much more than that. He centering in on the whole force of the universe. He is solving all the problems in the world. He is exploring lands outside the living room window. And he is equipping himself with armor to battle dragons, save damsels in distress, map his way through Middle-earth, and scale Mount Olympus.
Why not join him? Ask him what he's reading. Ask him to share parts of it with you. Listen attentively. Ask him about the characters, the plot, the setting.
Charlotte Mason knew what she was writing about when she advocated narration within the home/school.
Without books we cannot meet famous minds and speakers. Without books we cannot understand the abstract things of life like morals and virtues and vices. Without books we lack self-expression. Without books, God's word could not be shared with faraway lands and people. Without books we forget where we came from. Without books the past becomes as dry and lost as the sand that blows across the Egyptian desert. Without books we become speechless.
Your child is not escaping the world when reading. Quite the opposite. He is equipping himself with tools to go out and meet it.
(A book study gathering held under the Louisiana oak trees as our co-op group discussed and learned about the poem Evangeline written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Here's what I wanted you to know. 
We have exciting news about Catholic Mosaic. The new printing has ALL the pictures in color! It is available from my publisher at 
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