This is another one of those books that I happened upon in a random way.  Susan had rented an AirB&B in Ashford, MA to stay in while she took a week long course in collage at an adult arts/crafts camp, and I joined her for the last night. On the bookshelves in this modest cabin was one of the best collection of poetry books I’ve ever seen.  Among them was this book of prose pieces by the Nobel Prize winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska.

In order to put bread on the table while writing her prize winning poems (which, by the way, I love!), Szymborska wrote a weekly column of brief book reviews entitled Nonrequired Reading.  They’ve been collected in this volume which enlightens, delights, tickles, informs, and just plain old pleases because the writing, the wide scope of knowledge, the wit, and the humane nature of the writer come shining through.

Reading these 97 2-3 page ‘sketches’ as she prefers to call them, is an experience that reminded me of what it must be like to read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z.  From a book about the Dutch physician who first performed kidney dialysis during WWII German occupation to a book about the lives of the great opera divas, from a book about the history of the Near East to one about Catherine the Great, from self-help books to ones about the greatest 100 tyrants in history and mad kings, Szymborska has an opinion about all of them, and she shares it frankly and often very humorously.  Here’s her comment on ‘The Statistical Pole’ by Irene Landau published in 1969:  “The book is easily digestible but not particularly nourishing.”  

I found that of the 97 books ‘sketched’, very few were of enough interest for me to note the title and author.  Nearly all of them were published in Polish in the late 1990’s, so don’t read this book in order to find your next ‘must read’.  Rather, read these sketches to see a master mind and writer at work.

The book begins with a two page note to the reader entitled, ‘From the Author’ and this intro is well worth the price of admission itself.  In it, Szymborska voices three themes that perfectly resonated with my own practice of reading and writing reviews.  First, she writes that she is going to focus on those books that ‘were unappreciated, undiscussed, unrecommended’ but were selling well in bookstores.  In other words, leave the reviews of the best sellers to others and read and review the more fascinating, less publicized books. Second, she didn’t want to write ‘reviews’.  Rather she wished ‘to remain a reader, an amateur, and a fan, unburdened by the weight of ceaseless evaluation.” Finally, I loved her ruminations about reading.  Here’s what she wrote:  “I am old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised….Homo Ludens with a book is free. At least as free as he’s capable of being. He himself makes up the rules of the game, which are subject only to his own curiosity.  He’s permitted to read intelligent books, from which he will benefit, as well as stupid ones from which he may also learn something.  He can stop before finishing one book, if he wishes, while starting another at the end and working his way back to the beginning. He may laugh in the wrong places or stop short at words that he’ll keep for a lifetime.  And finally, he’s free—and no other hobby can promise this—-to eavesdrop on Montaigne’s arguments or take a quick dip in the Mesozoic.”

Who knew that I would channel a Polish, Nobel Prize winning reader and sketch writer.  Read this intro even if you read nothing else in this book.