Poet’s Corner

Last spring, I visited Westminster Abbey in London. I waited in a line that snaked the front of the building like some kind of Disneyland ride. It was a pretty impressive crowd for a church. To be fair, Westminster is one of the grandest churches in the world—an architectural and historic wonder. Not no mention the burial place of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and centuries of British monarchs, among others. The crowd thinned a bit throughout the self-guided tour until I reached the end, a little nook called Poet’s Corner, where writers and poets are remembered. The little room was packed. While some writers’ remains are actually housed in vaults beneath the stone floor, most are memorials—no more than name placards on a wall. The popularity of the small space struck me. In this grand abbey of the rich and powerful, what truly remains—what carries the most lasting impact on the individual—is story. Characters and the authors who created them.

Recent studies have found that high-quality fiction improves a reader’s capacity for empathy, the ability to understand what others are thinking and feeling. Novels, in other words, aren’t just a way to pass the time. They are gateways to an elevated way of seeing and living and caring deeply about people around us.

The study qualifies this fiction-empathy connection, however. Not any old Danielle Steele romance novel will do. How to find quality literature then? Well, Jim Trelease’s long-standing classic Read Aloud Handbook is a galvanizing must-read for young parents and contains lists of fabulous recommendations.  Sarah Mackenzie has a great podcast and extensive book lists for children and teens. I love NPR’s Top 100 book lists. Frankly, there are great lists all over the internet. If you don’t want to bother with a list, ask your local librarian or bookseller! Or, if you’re too shy for that, bookstores and libraries usually have an employee-recommendation shelf, where they gush about their pick in one short paragraph. Here’s an unsolicited list of my own, because I can’t help myself. The last three excellent novels I read recently:

LaRose by Louise Erdrich

The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

If you’re a parent and value the idea of avid reading in your child, the best way to encourage him or her toward that ideal is to be an avid reader yourself. Whether it’s been weeks, months, or years (I hope it hasn’t been years) since you’ve read a novel, pick one up. It isn’t like flossing or eating your Brussel sprouts. If you find the right book, reading is a rush.

I should say that Westminster Abbey was a side note of my London trip. The real reason I went was to see the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a sequel story that takes place 20 years after book seven ends. It was magical.

Sometimes I think about how widely loved that story is. How it has spread through so many cultures and age groups. How, even if you found yourself in a stalled elevator with someone you disagreed with politically, religiously, socially, or whatever, you could probably find some common ground in talking about Harry Potter. (If you haven’t read Harry Potter, you should most definitely put it at the top of your TBR* pile.) Such is the binding, communal, empathy-building power of a good story.

*Booknerd acronym: “To Be Read” pile