FEATURED | Blog

Why Read a Novel at All or, for That Matter, Why Write Them?

One could hardly be a writer of fiction without wondering just what it is that draws us to reading at all. For me, the answer is quite straight-forward. Fiction allows me, within the scope of three or four hundred pages, to live an alternative life. Not confined to the mere escapism of a television series or current movie, fiction draws on deeper connections, because it exists to a very large part within the creativity of our own minds. Rather than presented to us in full dress, we craft our own visualizations of the streets in wartime Paris, the wild mountains of the American West or the look and feel of two lover’s first or last encounter.

My older brother, an engineer of great talent and depth, once told me that he far preferred radio over movies as an entertainment venue. When I asked him why, his answer summed it up neatly: Because the pictures are better. I’ve thought about that a good bit over the years and come to realize that’s exactly the power of a well-written novel. The pictures are indeed better, because they are sketched in by the writer and leave to our own minds the filling in of highly personalized detail, exactly the kind of participation that makes reading both memorable and transporting.

Fortunately, in this age of e-books and print-on-demand, the pleasures of that transport can be had for the price of a modest dinner out or, in the case of e-books, half the cost of a pack of Camel cigarettes. A good value, that, especially if you’re trying to cut down on smoking.

RECENT POSTS…

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE…

The Dark Side of the Moon: Vol. 5

The Dark Side of the Moon series is a chronological collection of observations on social, political and occasionally even personal subjects. Each volume provides food for thought, and Freeman encourages readers to cut into them - use and abuse these books, dog-ear the...

The Dark Side of the Moon: Vol. 4

Jim Freeman’s views of American politics are salted with irony and lightly peppered by humor, a relief from the unending rants of the far left or far right and reasonably balanced by common sense. They’re here as Freeman wrote and published them at the time, unedited...

The Dark Side of the Moon: vol. 2

Volume 2 of The Dark Side of the Moon moves from Howard Dean’s ‘excellent chance of becoming the next president of the United States’ to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the evisceration of Medicaid and the exposure of the Jack Abramoff scandal. But what else was...

The Smell of Tweed and Tobacco

In 1993 Jim Freeman left his hometown Chicago to live and write in Europe. He found himself in the golden city of Prague in the golden era of post-revolution growth - a strikingly beautiful city with a lively community of writers, musicians and artists. Although not...