This article by author Julian Barnes has been making the rounds the past couple of days. I love this bit from the end:

“When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape – into different countries, mores, speech patterns – but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life’s subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains and truths. Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic.”

The whole article is Barnes’ take on the future of reading, the future of the book and bookstores. Nothing super new presented in it. This one just has a well thought out personal take on things, without overly romanticizing, which makes it worth sharing.