"What is true of art is true of serious reading as well. Fewer and fewer people, it seems, have the leisure or the inclination to undertake it. And true reading is hard. Unless we are practiced, we do not just crack the covers and slip into an alternate world. We do not get swept up as readily as we might be by the big-screen excitements of film. But if we do read perseveringly we make available to ourselves, in a most portable form, an ulterior existence."

Learn more about

• How scholars and others talk about reading:
  http://www.scholarisland.com/reading.htm
• Project Gutenberg, the oldest producer of free electronic books:
  http://gutenberg.net/
• Wisdom and Knowledge:
  http://www.chemistrycoach.com/on_wisdom_.htm