Walking a Literary Labyrinth: A Spirituality of Reading

Rating:
Summary: For the pure pleasure of it....
Review: "She must be quite a character," my husband commented and that is probably true, but while Nancy Malone's gentle reflection on the act of reading is personal, she does not dominate the pages. Here is a voice carefully paying attention to how and why we read and what happens to us when we do. It is not abstract, but tangible; her story is that of Catholics coming of age in the last 50 years. I find myself saying, "Ah, yes, this is how reading illumines my life." She advocates reading for the sheer pleasure of it, and that's what reading Walking a Literary Labyrinth has been.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for bookworms and avid readers!
Review: Walking A Literary Labyrinth: A Spirituality of Reading by Nancy Malone

Our journey through life can be enlightened with pleasurable nuggets worth recording. Recording the remembrance of a literary life was done ever so eloquently in the name of Walking A Literary Labyrinth: A Spirituality of Reading as told by Nancy Malone, an Ursuline Nun with a voracious reading habit. This memoir is appealing and quite interesting as it delves into a wide range of books giving us an inside view of a woman who not only shares her passion for books but conveys a definitive analogy for self awareness in literacy. The bibliophile that I am drew me to this book, and I'm glad that I did! It spoke of the need to continue to keep books at the forefront of my existence...one that harkens me to not forget why having a list of books at the ready to reinforce how important the reading life is. The fact that the author draws from diverse and far-reaching sources to compile this narrative gives it a flavor that is unmistakable. The spirituality and secular ambiance of the author's peripheral vision should give readers viable reasons to believe that the substance therein is both qualitative and quantitative.

Walking A Literary Labyrinth is a structured book. Follow the author as she examines the role that reading plays in giving meaning to the worthiness within ourselves as it pertain to those books that makes a difference in your life. In allowing the title to breath life into what is written, she likens the experience of reading to walking a maze of symmetrical meanderings where each book is a metaphor for life's experiences. In other words, you ARE what you read. Know too, that the paths within this maze, or labyrinth as the author puts it are not straight that leads invariably to a small circle in the center that is definitive of the self. This 'self-awareness' through reading, the author opines is what makes us who we are. As I read the book I truly was amazed at how Ms Malone extended me the welcome to examine and consider how the influence of reading selected books can have staying power to shape our thoughts, and mold us to enlarge the humanistic value of knowledge. As indicated elsewhere in this review, the author's insightful and articulation of influential books covers a broad range of subjects, including her childhood readings; books that are iconoclastic in nature, bordering on religious objectivity; reading and social responsibility; "immoral" reading (that challenges us to examine our predilection for erotic literature, and the joys of poetry.

The book is arranged in eight beautiful chapters, each with a reflective analysis relative to the topic being discussed. The Prologue and The Epilogues are congruous to all that has been conveyed and gives the reader extra-added substance with a well endowed recommended reading list. The aforementioned she sections off by giving books that have shaped her life in some manner, i.e., Short Pieces That Have Made Me Laugh; Biography and Autobiography; Spiritual Reading and Theology; Fiction; Nonfiction, et al. The book includes a bibliography to inspire readers to seek out the unfamiliar or return to old favorites. In Walking a Literary Labyrinth, Malone invites readers of all religious and secular traditions to consider the influence of reading in their own lives, and let it be the barometer to measure the worth you gain from books. This is an excellent read!