WHEN THE READING LIGHT WENT ON

Richard Riordan, mayor of Los Angeles:

When I reached the second grade, they turned me around and sent me back to the first grade because I read poorly. Soon after, I was kicked out of the Catholic private school and was sent to a public school. At age 8, my reading improved, and I became a voracious reader.

As a college student, when the pressure got too great, I would read. I would take a break from my work for a half-hour at a time and pick up a book and then I’d go back to my schoolwork.

Reading is the secret to getting away from the reality of the world and into a land of dreams. And they’re beautiful dreams.

We learn from reading all kinds of books. It gets us to look outside normal boundaries to come up with creative solutions.

Some of my favorite authors are Graham Greene, Marcel Proust and Evelyn Waugh . What I enjoy most about Greene and Proust are their courage and clarity. I especially enjoy how Greene weaves moral issues into real-life people. I enjoy Waugh’s sense of humor, savvy satire, and his sparsity of language.

I now have a book club. A few of my friends and I get together and discuss some great books.

I don’t recall when I started collecting books, but I purchased 40,000 books from the library of the College of Sacred Heart when the school closed. To share the magic of reading with others, I usually give people books I think they would enjoy reading.