Judging a Book by its Lover

A friend of mine recently recommended a book to me written by Lauren Leto, the creator of the internet humour site Texts from Last Night (very funny, should you happen to stumble across it). This is not a review of that book, which is entitled Judging a Book by its Lover - I am still reading it. But I came across a passage early on which I immediately wanted to share, because it so perfectly summarises the way I feel about reading, something that I have expressed here before, though perhaps not as eloquently:

"Considering yourself a serious reader doesn't mean you can't read light books. Loving to read means you sometimes like to turn your head off. Reading is not about being able to recite passages from Camus by memory. Loving young adult novels well past adolescence isn't a sign of stunted maturity or intelligence. The most important thing about reading is not the level of sophistication of the books on your shelf. There is no prerequisite reading regimen for being a bookworm."

Precisely.

Leto does go on, however, to caution that "silly books shouldn't be all we read", or we will all become lazy readers, with narrow perspective.

All of this makes so much sense it causes me to sigh with satisfaction. The rest of Leto's book is a collection of random bookish wisdom along these lines, as well as satirical imaginings, such as what it would be like to have dinner or brunch with any number of famous writer couples (the kind of fantasy I indulge in a little too regularly on rainy Sydney days) and humorous anecdotes, such as Leto's tragic middle school spelling bee experience. All of which makes me think she is the kind of woman with whom I would like to share a bottle of good red wine. Or two.