Books Saved Me

“It is no exaggeration to say that those books saved me: from a life of poverty, stress, depression and isolation.”
Charles M. Blow, My Life’s Sentences

“We encounter books at different times in life, often appreciating them, apprehending them, in different ways. But their language is constant. The best sentences orient us, like stars in the sky, like landmarks on a trail.”
-Jhumpa Lahiri

The writer Hisham Matar looks at how books can widen a narrow worldview: “The most magical moments in reading occur not when I encounter something unknown but when I happen upon myself, when I read a sentence that perfectly describes something I have known or felt all along. I am reminded then that I am really no different from anyone else.”