Reading Matters
by Janet Levine

The publication date is July 20, 2022.

In her article for Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan provided a beautiful introduction to the importance of Janet Levine’s Reading Matters book:

READING MATTERS: HOW LITERATURE INFLUENCES LIFE draws important connections between reading choices and decision-making processes, using a range of literary examples, from Herman Hesse’s spiritual journey in Siddhartha to the passage of time and its impact on memory in Virginia Woolfe’s To the Lighthouse.

More so than most literary analyses, Reading Matters explores a sense of self, place, and society that are represented in these major works. It considers the impact of these works around the world. It links them in chapters which move between analyses to cross-compare the literature and its impacts on other countries and individual lives.

Endorsements for the book give complementary insights into its value:

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. It is also essential for our ability to take action and make a better world.

— Barbara M. Jones, Director, Office for Intellectual Freedom at American Library Association, International Library Consultant

The stunning endorsements for Janet Levine’s Reading Matters say it all. It is a book by a renowned author that belong in every library and on every shelf of people who know and value the importance of great literature.

An inspiring demonstration of how great literature can change our minds, and our lives.

–Tom Harper, author of The Orpheus Descent