Title: Why do we read?
Headings: Why do we read?
Why do we read?
To read is to build your own imagination and strengthen resistance to prevailing commercial forces

Content: We read because we know instinctively that nature, books, music and love help us live life more intensely and in, dare I say it, truth. We read because we love the language, the images it evokes, the landscapes it conjures, the mire of human desire, anguish and beauty. We read to send us to sleep dreaming of different sunsets and boulevards, oceans and bogs. We read to know that there is someone tracing a life very like our own, or not at all alike but recognisable all the same, and making of it a moment worth sharing. In Tim Winton’s book Breath the protagonist says: “ I liked books – the respite and privacy of them – . . . Whenever I sank into them I felt free.” Isabelle Cartwright is a member of the Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders and Indexers. She is compiling a book meant to console people living with depression. If you are a writer and want to contribute please contact her at icartwright@eircom.net