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kaylen alexandra's avatar

Took notes on this one!! I’ve been searching for a new podcast and Burned By Books sounds like the perfect pod to jump into. Thank you!

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Celine Nguyen's avatar

I loved reading this! I relate so deeply to Rakoff's desire to read, not to escape—I also read obsessively as a kid!—but to feel more deeply curious and integrated with the world, and newly aware of all its possibilities. The intense emotions I get from a novel often make life itself more meaningful.

It reminds me a bit of this passage from Proust: "Real life, life finally uncovered and clarified, the only life in consequence lived to the full, is literature. Life in this sense dwells within all ordinary people as much as in the artist…It is only through art that we can escape from ourselves and know how another person sees a universe which is not the same as our own and whose landscapes would otherwise have remained…unknown."

Such a pleasure to read the mini book reviews, too—very intrigued by Espach's The Wedding People now! This was a wonderful column to read on a peaceful Saturday morning.

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