I've been reading Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and I am constantly marvelling over Dickens mastery of the English language. This one point, where Pip finds out he is to be sent to Miss Havisham's house, I found amusing:

"And Lor-a mussy me!" cried my sister, casting off her bonnet in sudden desperation, "here I stand talking to mere Mooncalfs, with Uncle Pumblechook waiting, and the mare catching cold at the door, and the boy grimed with crock and dirt from the hair of his head to the sole of his foot!" With that, she pounced upon me, like an eagle on a lamb, and my face was squeezed into wooden bowls in sinks, and my head was put under taps of water-butts, and I was soaped, and kneaded, and toweled, and thumped, and harrowed, and rasped, until I really was quite beside myself. (I may here remark that I suppose myself to be better acquainted than any living authority, with the ridgy effect of a wedding-ring, passing unsympathetically over the human countenance. (pp.244-245)

This description is what I love about reading. I could just see the boy being pummeled while he was being cleaned up for his travels. Almost makes me think of the cartoons where the characters get put through a factory and wind up as haystacks. A really good writer makes people see in their minds what they are describing. I bring this up because my father observed how much pleasure my mother and I get out of reading, and I've been pondering the reasons why since. The above passage illustrates why. I get some insight into how my mind processes what I'm reading. Some people may not the same visual images that I do when I read, and that's okay. That's how God made us. On the other hand, I'm terrible with directions that just have street names, or route numbers, or whatever. I need to have landmarks to find places. But it is fascinating to me to see how writers bring out these characters, and the words they use to bring events and people to life, and it is one of my joys in life. I've had a lot of time to read lately, and I'm trying to take advantage of it. Hooray for reading!