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The Reader – Summer 2005

Number 18

Summer 2005

annual

Donna Everhart

Penelope Shuttle admits that she is a bookworm while she talks (writes) about the importance of reading aloud, a common activity of the past, less common in the present. She attends author readings, the most memorable of which she describes. “It was Pablo Neruda who made the very deepest impression on me. Penelope Shuttle admits that she is a bookworm while she talks (writes) about the importance of reading aloud, a common activity of the past, less common in the present. She attends author readings, the most memorable of which she describes. “It was Pablo Neruda who made the very deepest impression on me. He read his poems from memory, his arms lifted, his head thrown back, his Aztec face stern with the power of his verse. It didn’t matter that I didn’t understand Spanish; meaning and significance poured from him, I didn’t need the translations that followed.” What Shuttle is talking about, I believe, is passion. And passion is exactly the feeling I have carried away from my experience with The Reader. In addition to fiction, poetry, essays about fiction and poetry, and opinion pieces, I felt a genuine love of reading and a desire to share what one has read. Gwyneth Lewis’ “Sea Books” gives a description of her sailing experience on the Jameeleh, a voyage which led her toward the accumulation of several books, first hand and fictional accounts of travels at sea. “It’s amazing,” says Lewis, “how many lone sailors are good writers.” The sea image appears in several accounts, stories, essays, poems in the summer 2005 issue of The Reader, even on the dark cover itself. The silhouette of a figure reading a book would not be visible if not for the light from a window looking out onto a beach. The reading-writing connection Lewis mentioned reappears, too. As Sarah Maclennan says, “During my non-writing years I read voraciously — mainly prose — and now that I am brim-full of other people’s words my own are forming.” This is the passion I have been talking about, the passion that stays, that grows. A crossword puzzle for all the word lovers out there waits in the back. Sorry, only the answers to the last issue’s crossword puzzle are included!
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