The Joy of the Tome
Choosing to read really big books (sometimes)
When I hear the word tome, I always think of Reverend Hale in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, carrying around his heavy books that are “weighted with authority” (Act I). Although others mock him during the Salem witch trials, he is the only government or church figure (well, the same as the early colony of Massachusetts was a theocracy) who can really see the truth, the grey area. So although there is some mockery of the way he carries these appendages of knowledge, perhaps studying them or reflecting on them has made him wiser. Rather than quote the texts, he seems to be reminded that he has done the reading as well as the thinking that follows.
I love to read, and I love to read many kinds of books as well as many lengths of books. Sometimes a short novel is exquisitely filled with beauty and truth. Sometimes I want to read something on a plane that I know I can finish by landing. But there is a certain commitment of the undertaking of a 500+ page book that feels both literally and figuratively weighty in a way that helps me to grow.
We all have to choose how we use our time. As readers, we have to carefully select where our reading time goes (as I discuss in an article for Better Humans). Choosing large books takes away from the Reading Challenge count on Goodreads or simply the…
