The Best Way To Read

Helen Stringer over at Tor.com writes about reading like a child, which may be the best way to read, in my humble opinion. An excerpt:

My sister and I would race up the stairs and pore over the slim paperbacks (usually Puffins) searching for that next really good story. Then we’d take them home and read them in that way. That children’s way.

For me, that meant lying on my stomach in front of the gas fire in the living room and losing myself completely. I didn’t hear a thing. Every sense, every muscle, every atom of my being was engaged in reading. And not just reading—seeing, feeling, experiencing. Books were multimedia experiences playing out in my head with full-on stereo sound and 3-D vision. They were magic.

I suspect we all read like that when we’re young, but as we get older we change.

We no longer lose ourselves and, you know, it really isn’t fair. Why should children get all the fun? So I’m taking it back. I’m turning off the phones, shutting down the computer, and going into the living room where I will lie in front of my fake wood burning fire, open a book and allow myself to become lost. And there’s no point speaking to me because I won’t hear you.

I’m going to be reading like a child.