Books, take me away...

I'm old enough to remember a Calgon commercial from the 1970s. Actually, mainly what I remember is this wonderful line: "Calgon, take me away." The point, as you may recall, is that a bath with Calgon soap could help one escape the stresses of everyday life. I was reminded of that commercial when I was preparing this inaugural issue of Mind Travel. As my tagline says, books can help you go places. They can take you "away" from a place as a Calgon bath could, but they also can take you to, well, literally anywhere. Emily Dickinson put it this way:

There is no Frigate like a Book

To take us lands away

Nor any Coursers like a Page

Of prancing poetry

This Traverse may the Poorest take

Without Oppress of Toll

How Frugal is the Chariot

That bears the human Soul.

Dickinson's poetry belongs in this newsletter, where I hope my columns and images can help you travel, through books, to "lands away." (Dickinson's brilliant poetry also belongs in other places, including the minds of anyone who wishes to be transported intellectually and spiritually.) As we prepare to set sail with this intellectual journey together, let me share a few thoughts about the treasures we can look forward to discovering along the way.

For some books are easy to love, akin to gifts from above or longtime companions. For others, however, books are an acquired taste. After all, reading--especially reading challenging literature--can be intellectually difficult. An ambitious reader needs a fairly expansive vocabulary, an ability to process long and sometimes complicated or even convoluted sentences, and, let's face it, patience.

However you came to books--naturally or somewhat painfully--you stand to enjoy the same treasures. For starters, you are almost always sure to learn something--about history, about nature, about people. Even if the book is a work of fiction, there is often much truth to be found in it (a central theme of my book Literature and Journalism in Antebellum America and a topic I hope to take up here in this newsletter at some point).

That books can help us to expand our stock of knowledge hardly needs explaining, but let's consider a specific kind of knowledge that comes with books--that is, a new appreciation of another person's perspective. I grew up in the Indianapolis suburbs in the 1970s and 1980s. I will never know exactly how it feels to be, say, a Mexican immigrant growing up in rural Texas today, but a book can take me closer than anything else can. When I read a book, I can immerse myself in a sustained way in someone else's world. This immersion matters because understanding can build empathy, and empathy is a key to solving many of the world's problems, not only violence, but also racism, intolerance, oppression, and poverty.

In my next issue, I will offer some additional thoughts about the treasures of mind travel through books.