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If knowledge is power then surely one of the chief sources for that power comes through the magic of reading a good book. Books can lift us up and transport us away from the ho-hum and the everyday, enabling us, the reader, to create entire worlds whole cloth with but our mere imagination. As a child of divorce, I learned the above lesson quickly and as a matter of survival: Starting with comic books at the tender age of four, it wasn’t long before I was toting to grammar school an epic sized paperback copy of author Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War. The pre-World War II setting of Wouk’s soapy historical novel allowed me access to a world that no longer existed in any recognizable fashion, and I fell madly in love with the art of word building and getting swept away in the lives of fictional characters. Later on, too, I developed a sweet-tooth for nonfiction works, travelling to the far corners of the globe as I read about Spanish conquistadors and exotic countries and their histories. So yeah, it’s safe to assume I’m all aboard the new from our Encyclopedia Brown pals over at The Hollywood Reporter that the Will and Jada Smith Foundation are teaming up with Oprah (as in “Winfrey”) for a good cause that will promote books and the reading therein.
Oprah Winfrey, who knows her way around a book club if anyone does, is teaming up via her self-named Charitable Foundation with actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and their Family Foundation in order to promote honest chat centered on the underlying themes and philosophies in Will Smith’s new memoir WILL.
Both foundations will launch reading groups focused on young adults which will study some of the big and underlying themes in the Penguin Press inspirational memoir WILL. Will Smith’s candid look at his life and career is the jumping-off point for readers to hear a message of “embodying your authentic self, harnessing the power of the mind, and developing habits for success and healthy relationships.” That’s all good and well, but can they also teach me how to set my VCR to record Miami Vice every Friday night? 1980s Me kinda wants to know…
In all seriousness, just about anything that can encourage and inspire someone to pick up and read a good book is right as rain in my (wait for it…) book. Here’s to a raging success for this worthy endeavor!
