Bestselling author Pat Conroy acknowledges the books that have shaped
him and celebrates the profound effect reading has had on his life.
Pat Conroy, the beloved American storyteller, is a voracious reader.
Starting as a childhood passion that bloomed into a life-long companion,
reading has been Conroy's portal to the world, both to the farthest
corners of the globe and to the deepest chambers of the human soul. His
interests range widely, from Milton to Tolkien, Philip Roth to
Thucydides, encompassing poetry, history, philosophy, and any
mesmerizing tale of his native South. He has for years kept notebooks in
which he records words and expressions, over time creating a vast
reservoir of playful turns of phrase, dazzling flashes of description,
and snippets of delightful sound, all just for his love of language. But
for Conroy reading is not simply a pleasure to be enjoyed in off-hours
or a source of inspiration for his own writing. It would hardly be an
exaggeration to claim that reading has saved his life, and if not his
life then surely his sanity.
In My Reading Life, Conroy revisits a life of reading through an array
of wonderful and often surprising anecdotes: sharing the pleasures of
the local library's vast cache with his mother when he was a boy,
recounting his decades-long relationship with the English teacher who
pointed him onto the path of letters, and describing a profoundly
influential period he spent in Paris, as well as reflecting on other
pivotal people, places, and experiences. His story is a moving and
personal one, girded by wisdom and an undeniable honesty. Anyone who not
only enjoys the pleasures of reading but also believes in the power of
books to shape a life will find here the greatest defense of that credo.
