“We must be forewarned that only rarely does a text easily lend itself to the reader's curiosity... the reading of a text is a transaction between the reader and the text, which mediates the encounter between the reader and writer. It is a composition between the reader and the writer in which the reader "rewrites" the text making a determined effort not to betray the author's spirit.” DoeSpiritReadingEffortLearningReaderCuriosityDeterminedEncountersBetrayCompositionTransactionsForewarned Author:Paulo Freire
“About twenty pages into Luke B. Goebel's Fourteen Stories, None of Them Are Yours, I realized I was reading with one hand holding my forehead and one balled at my waist, kind of clenched, and gazing down into the paper like a man soon to be converged upon. Goebel's testimony comes on like that: engrossing, fanatical, full of private grief, and yet, at the same time, charismatic, tender, and intrepid, aglow with more spirit than most Americans have the right to wield.” MenKindStoriesHandsSpiritReadingGriefPaperPagesTwentiesI RealizedTestimonyForeheadsFourteenLukeGazingCharismaticHand Holding Author:Blake Butler
“If we repeatedly read the Bible without the help of the Holy Spirit, it tends to reinforce our own prejudices and rock-hard doctrinal positions. We end up merely finding ammunition for what we already believe. We become so spiritually proud, so convinced of our own positions, that the Spirit is hindered in helping us to grow in the things of God.” IfsBelieveEndsHardGodHelpingChristianSpiritualSpiritFaithReadingBeliefGrowsReligiousLordRocksPositionProudBecomingHolyFindingsBiblePrejudiceConvincedChristian InspirationalDoctrineHoly SpiritPastorAmmunition Author:Jim Cymbala
“Who reads Incessantly, and to his reading brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior, (And what he brings what need he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains, Deep versed in books and shallow in himself, Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge, As children gathering pebbles on the shore.” NeedsChildrenStillsBookMatterSpiritChoicesReadingEqualJudgmentRemainsSuperiorsShoreElsewhereToysUncertainShallowGatheringCollectingTriflesCrudePebblesSpongesIncessantly Book:Paradise Regained In Plain and Simple English: A Modern Translation and the Original Version Source: Paradise Regained In Plain and Simple English: A Modern Translation and the Original Version
“The Scripture can only be read intelligently by inspired men and women. The value we get from our reading is in direct proportion to the measure in which we are filled with God's Spirit.” MenSpiritValuesReadingMen And WomenDirectFilledInspiredScriptureProportion Author:G. Campbell Morgan
“My mother read secondarily for information; she sank as a hedonist into novels. She read Dickens in the spirit in which she would have eloped with him.” SpiritMotherReadingNovelInformationDickensHedonist Author:Eudora Welty
“There is a strong conservative instinct in the average man or woman, born of the hereditary fear of life, that prompts them to cling to old standards, or, if too intelligent to look inhospitably upon progress, to move very slowly. Both types are the brakes and wheelhorses necessary to a stable civilization, but history, even current history in the newspapers, would be dull reading if there were no adventurous spirits willing to do battle for new ideas.” IfsMenLooksIdeasWould BeMovingSpiritReadingStrongBornProgressWillingTypeCivilizationBattleStandardsIntelligentInstinctAverageConservativeCurrentsNewspapersResistanceDullStableNew IdeasStatus QuoAdventurousPromptsAverage ManBrakeHereditaryFears Of LifeAdventurous Spirit Author:Gertrude Atherton
“Monkey Beach is a moody, powerful novel full of memorable characters. Reading it was like entering a pool of emerald water to discover a haunted world shivering with loss and love, regret and sorrow, where the spirit world is as real as the human. I was sucked into it with the very first sentence and when I left, it was with a feeling of immense reluctance.” WorldFirstsHumansRealCharacterFeelingsSpiritReadingLeftWaterLossPowerfulNovelRegretSorrowAnd LoveSentencesBeachMemorablePoolImmenseMonkeysEnteringMoodyReluctanceEmeraldsSpirit WorldMemorable Characters Author:Anita Rau Badami