Reading Matters: How Literature Influences Life

Great literature informs, absorbs attention, and sparks epiphanies. These works provide the true north of our literary compass, and take us further and further on our intellectual, emotional and spiritual journey. Among other experiences in reading literature, you find delight and joy, profound depths of previously unrelated thought, and vast fields of human relationships. Reading great literature can bring moments of insight, revelation, and changes of perspective that allow us to rethink our assumptions, belief system and worldview. In other words, to read is to be more fully able to understand the human condition. It is evident that we become what we read. Each chapter in Reading Matters explores aspects of the human condition: moral responsibility, redemption, spirituality, state governance and governance of the self, and a sense of time and of place. Some readers may know many of the texts in the book, others some of the texts, and yet others none at all. But all readers will be aware of the facets of the human condition contained in the works. Many will find in this book a new avenue for accessing literature, while others gain easily accessible philosophical ideas and psychological understandings. Janet Levine's first work Inside Apartheid earned media attention throughout the United States. She is also the author of The Enneagram Intelligences, nominated for the 2002 Grawemeyer Education Award. Levine is the founder and leader of several successful non-profit organizations in South Africa and the US.

Review :
"Great writing in great stories can draw the reader into another's walk, another's way. It's the beginning of human understanding and moral development, qualities sorely needed in today's world. Levine's book is an educator's compelling testimony to that enduring truth." -Deval L. Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts 2007-2015 (BA, Harvard, English and American Literature) "Janet Levine's thoughtful and creative approach to the act of reading is greatly important. She has selected a distinguished and diverse set of readings to underscore what we often take for granted-that reading matters. We readers bring to the works a unique set of experiences and beliefs. The texts then help us to grow and evolve. For a reader who fought censorship most of her life, this book showed me how the freedom to read is an essential link to personal growth and our ability to be pro-active and make a better world." -Barbara M. Jones, Ph.D. Retired, Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association; Executive Director, Freedom to Read Foundation "As a systems convener of learning communities for over 40 years, I find Levine's book engages inspiring readings that offer effective catalysts for change in mind structure. This book reflects her life's work as an educator." -Milton D. Cox, Founder and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, The Journal on Excellence in College Teaching "An inspiring demonstration of how great literature can change our minds, and our lives." -Tom Harper, prize-winning author of The Orpheus Descent and many other books "An intriguing and thorough exploration of the relationship between literature and its impact on our culture and how we see the world around us." -Helaina Hovitz, author of After 9/11 "As the natural world and our political structures test the limits of our beliefs and the boundaries of reality, Levine' s work shines a light on the way in which those delineations are learned but may be changed. Levine addresses the full essence of a person, in both matters of the heart and matters of the mind." -Tze Chun, Founder and CEO of Uprise Art "In this book Janet Levine explores how texts from a variety of literary traditions can expand our understanding of what it means to be human. The book invites all readers, regardless of age or profession, to open our minds to the possibility of seeing ourselves and our world anew. Levine straddles multiple cultures and from her unique perspective makes the familiar new and the new familiar." -Margery Sokoloff, Associate Director, Brandeis University Teacher Leadership Program "What a fascinating book! I so agree with the title Reading Matters. As a group analyst I am immediately inspired to invite a group together to read this book, chapter by chapter, and discuss the deep themes so wisely chosen and presented by Janet Levine." -Leila Valtonen, Mth, (Master of Theology), Organization Consultant, Training Group Analyst, Helsinki University, Finland