The day I approached my teacher, Johannes, for the first time was on my birthday in 1946. I'd circled whichever field he occupied with his sheep for a month before I got the courage together to walk up to him to say hello. So, taking a deep breath, I walked up to the man and, by way of "hello" said with six-year old bravado, "I can already read." "Can you read the stars?" was his reply. I said, amazed, "I didn't know you could read stars." And his response has stayed with me: "You can read anything; people who read books forget this."
Well, as it happens, I spent more time in grad school reading books than most academics. What I have learned is that you can indeed read books without forgetting that all things can be read. Language is a means to transcendence, and folks who scan book, highlighting what might be on the test, do not really read. For them, books are dead things. a Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
