The Avid Reader
The Avid Reader
Please enjoy this comical portrait of the quintessential bookworm, written by my talented sister. Both of us are confirmed bibliophiles who cherish dreams of amassing grandiose libraries (already begun). We enjoy everything from philosophic tomes, to thick manuals, to old poetry, to riveting mysteries, to great fiction, to sparkling comedy. Reading is a serious passion for us, but we aren’t afraid to poke fun at ourselves. And an “avid reader,” blissfully oblivious behind the covers of a book, is exceptionally fun to tease.
Mama remarked that this piece reminds her particularly of me, probably because I tend to the hermit-reader stereotype. I hope I have a better complexion, but otherwise it is probably an apt description.—Especially the ink on the tip of the nose.
If you would like to read more caricature, read my “The Bibliophile.” On the more earnest side, you might enjoy “The Good Reader.” If you are looking for a good summer read, be sure to explore the Bibliotheca pages, a growing catalogue of good books.
At one point in the course of your life, you have probably met the Avid Reader. His elbows shine from rubbing on desks; his skin is the color of the ancient, yellowed pages he flips through; his clothes are like the tattered covers of his favorite volumes. Looking past you with hazy, far-off eyes, he compliantly does what is asked of him, all the while longing to be back in his library, beneath the mountain of books from which you dragged him, unwilling. Once in a while you wonder if he needs to be saved from stifling, when to take him away from his books would be the death of him.
It seems like he needs no other company than his books and the glow of the study lamp. It is to them that he reads aloud the dire episode of Shakespeare—”Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!”
He knows not day or night. A stream of light continuously shines from beneath the library door. Opening it a crack reveals his permanently hunched shoulders bent over a grand hardback; or him standing precariously on a chair (which is balanced on the coffee table, which is standing on the couch) trying to reach a novel from the top of his ceiling-to-floor bookcase.
Beware to anyone who shows interest in his lifelong hobby! Before you know it, you will be sucked into a whirlpool of authors, genres, titles, and dates.When you finally get out of the library, you will have a layer of dust on your tussled hair, a page tucked behind your ear, and ink on the tip of your nose.
Yes, his name fits him well—the Avid Reader.
Painting: Unknown Title. Carl Larsson.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009