Read Isaac Fitzgerald's inspiring foreword to Quarterly 16

826valencia:

This art? It’s by Wendy MacNaughton.

You need to read Isaac Fitzgerald’s wonderful foreword to Quarterly 16. Read the entire thing and be inspired (or else? we don’t want to threaten anyone, but you should really read this). Here goes…

Reading is escape. A way to get out of your environment and into your imagination. Did you just find out that the girl you liked doesn’t like you back? Or that your mother lost her job? Or that you’re moving to a new city, where you don’t know anyone? You can take a break from being you and, instead, become a whaler, a space cowgirl, or a father and son on a cross-country motorcycle trip. Reading is a way to leave the real moment for a better moment, if only for a little while.

I felt the same way about driving when I was a teenager. To get in a car was to head somewhere new, to leave, if only for a little while. A good book and a good car are similar in that way: they can get you where you need to go. Even if the destination is nothing more than “not here.”

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