I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life - Anne Bogel

I stumbled upon Anne Bogel’s I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life a few days ago at a used-book bookstore and snatched it right up, figuring that Bogel had to be a kindred spirit. And, even though the book was a little less inspiring than I expected it would be, I was correct about Bogel. She is.

I’d Rather Be Reading consists of an introduction and twenty-one short “reflections” on readers, reading, and the books we love so much. Really avid readers know how difficult it is to pass by books like this one when we run across them unexpectedly. I think we enjoy these so much because reading a book about the joys of reading is almost like having a private conversation with a stranger who actually gets who we are. There are lots of us out here in the real world, but it is not every day that we run into each other, so books like I’d Rather Be Reading (along with book blog commenting) are the next best thing. 

“But avid readers know a great book doesn’t exist only in the realm of the material. The words between those covers bring whole worlds to life. When I think of the characters and stories and ideas contained on a single shelf of my personal library, it boggles my mind. To readers, those books — the ones we buy and borrow and trade and sell — are more than objects. They are opportunities beckoning us. When we read, we connect with them (or don’t) in a personal way.”

And then, there’s this tidbit: 

“We are readers. Books are an essential part of our lives and of our life stories. For us, reading isn’t just a hobby or a pastime; it’s a lifestyle.”

Bogel even touches briefly on one of my own pet peeves:

“We know the pain of investing hours of reading time in a book we enjoyed right up until the final chapter’s truly terrible resolution…”

And these quotes are all from just the book’s introduction, so yeah, Anne Bogel gets it.

Bogel’s topics for reflection include these:

• Confessing your literary sins — all those classics you’ve never read,
• The difference between searching for the next perfect read and having the book find you instead,
• The unbelievable good luck of living right next door to a city library,
• How books allow readers to live thousands of different lives,
• The great fun of organizing and reorganizing your bookshelves — over and over again,
• The danger of becoming a “book bully” who pushes books on friends and family,
• All the different readers she has already been during her (relatively short) lifetime,
• How library due dates motivate her to read more and read faster,
• How your reading choices influence your real-world coming-of-age,
• The joy of meeting a “book twin,”
• Re-reading (“Again, for the First Time”),
• Personal bookshelves being the true “windows to the soul,” and
• The difficulty of remembering off the top of your head which books you read even one month ago.

Bottom Line: While I’d Rather Be Reading is fun, and sometimes inspirational, it left me feeling that the author had only skimmed the surface of most of her chosen topics. Some of the chapters read more like introductions to an idea or topic than true reflections, and I was often left wishing for more. I suspect that I would have enjoyed this one more if I had found it a couple of decades earlier (impossible, I know, because I’d Rather Be Reading was published in 2018), making me think that I’ve already read too many similar books — and that maybe there’s just not that much left to say.  

Anne Bogel