• By Margaret Toman

    The TAF forum posed this morning an existential question for those of us who move through time and space addicted to the printed word: “What, exactly, do you get out of reading? How does it enrich your life?” My initial response to the question is below, with the caveat that I continue to think about the answer.

    Fun, pleasure, information, adventure, and a sense of past and future were the preliminary answers of the questioner to his own question, and I concur. For me, there is also a fascination with architecture — the interrelationship between structure and expression, the choreography of thoughts, words, phrases, sentences and adjectives that compels the reader to read.  

    A life without reading is unimaginable. Not liking to read is equally unimaginable. I read joyfully and voraciously on diverse subjects with a special affection for nonfiction espionage, adventure travel, politics, science, philosophy, politics and discovery. I have a magazine addiction — Harper’s, New Yorker, Smithsonian, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair — because the quality of the writing is so high and the subjects so fascinating. I have too many “favorite” authors to count: John McPhee, Diane Ackerman, Mary Roach, Rebecca Solnit, Jon Meacham. Aside from the sheer pleasure of losing myself in a book, I am convinced that, over time, reading good quality writing teaches one how to write. Reading teaches grammar, spelling, syntax and punctuation — components of the craft itself — in addition to generating questions, ideas, possibilities and solutions. 

    Lately I have asked myself whether reading is my way to avoid the hard work of writing. I admit that sometimes it may be. It may also be that accomplished writers set a high standard my own writing seems not to meet, at least in my mind.  

    I take a life writing forum with Dr. James Clark who was just inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame last October. I asked him one time whether he knew of any writing classes in which I should enroll. His response surprised me. “I do not advise writing classes. You already know how to write. Just do it. It becomes easier with time and practice.” So far that proves true only when I am practicing verbal acrobatics via e-mail where the stakes are not so high. 

    One of my biggest fears is of winding up in a nursing home someday with only Bible study and Bingo. No Ben MacIntyre, no Neil Degrasse Tyson, no Christopher Bowman. No Don Vaughan, no Jim Clark, no peanut butter, no TAF.  

    That is a prospect is so dreadful that I must escape now into “The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization” by Vince Beiser. A terrific read!

    Margaret is a contributing writer to several caregiving and Alzheimer’s related publications. She writes, speaks, and advocates on behalf of the elderly and the imprisoned. Now retired, Margaret spent the majority of her working years in the nonprofit sector and was included in a News and Observer feature on “Working Women in Raleigh.” Margaret lives in Garner with her fat cat, “Velcro.”