Discovering Books

Kelly Candaele, trustee for the Los Angeles Community College District, writer for the New York Times, the Nation and Irish America magazine:

I really discovered books for the first time when I got into college. I wasn’t surrounded with books growing up; my parents believed in education but didn’t collect books themselves or read a whole lot.

I was introduced to reading by some European emigre professors teaching at Cal State Chico. One was an exile from Czech Communism, another was from Hungary. They were very inspirational; they showed me that books are a part of a life well-lived.

One of the professors was named Ivan Svitak, a philosophy professor. He brought ideas to life for an emerging intellect. We would go out and have beers and talk about ideas. It was a mystery that was unveiled.

I started reading all over the place--Freud and Jung. I never liked the idea of being confined to one category. I thought it was wrong to segregate these different disciplines--music, art, philosophy. As a psychology student, I understood more about human nature by reading great literature than from psychology texts.

I get so excited about books and ideas, and I want others to have it too. It’s also a political commitment: I want to change the world. Next year we’re starting a program called READ L.A. We’re getting tutors for the primary grades from our colleges, to help students learn a love of reading at an early age.