A kind of god inside each book

Blazing Reader,

Possibly a little over the top, I nonetheless love Sterlin Lujan's "ode to reading" from one of my current reads, Dignity and Decency:

"I love to dive into a book, siphon the life out of it, and eat up all the grit and glory. But it's not just about the mental excitement of being in there, it's about the sensory exploration: the smell, texture, and look of the thing. Books are like magical artifacts in this sense, and to their beholders, they bestow a kind of overwhelming power and enchantment — one that's almost as ineffable as grasping at the precise rhythm and harmony of the cosmos. There's a kind of god, then, inside each book, and between the pages and paragraphs, it enters into the mind and commandeers the soul. It takes over, speaks, and moves me to rejoice in the ecstasy of living."

I'm currently reading Lujan's book, Dignity and Decency: Rhapsodic Musings of a Modern Anarchist, and highly recommend it for a thorough take on why government is counter to human dignity and decency.

—John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.