The JN's
SELECTION
Of
REINING
SUMMER

JUDITH BOLTON-FASMAN
Special to The Jewish News

Ilir

o read is to engage in an essential dialogue. It may begin as a rudi-
mentary relationship, but once the imagination kicks in, the reader
talks to the author. The author then answers through the reader's
own interior monologue. Transcendence is a highly internal event.
It is essential to recognize that to read is to welcome silence. The rabbis knew
how crucial textual gaps of silence were for introspection. Nevertheless, it takes
time, some of it measured by the number of books we read, to overcome the
fear of silence, to stop equating it with loneliness or isolation, to understand
that pauses are necessary to rejuvenate the imagination.
To achieve ready access to an imaginative life is to accept the seeming con-
tradiction that reading is thrillingly repetitious. But don't most of us do just
that whenever we re-read a favorite story or poem, always expecting to find
more?
Some critics say that in our age of hypertext, Nintendo and the Internet,
it is impossible to think of anything imaginative associated with reading.
We hope the following selections encourage Jewish News readers to redis-
cover reading's pleasures this summer.

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6/12
1998

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