Extreme Reading

"Extreme reading is like cannibalism.  You take a book, like a piece of food, and eat it.  For sustenance, for blood, if not to ritually ingest the soul or heart or power of your enemy or someone you loved. You take it in and chew and grind and tear it down to the smallish bits, to the things that you can swallow. You rid yourself of some of it and keep some of the rest.  Sometimes you keep what may not be the best for you. Your body knows what's good for you, but sometimes you don't listen.  The things you eat and keep become a part of you.  You re-create inside yourself, with caverns, juices, processes you can and can't control, a kind of meat."


                  - Rebecca Brown, American Romances, City Lights Books, 2009