While browsing my local bookstore several months back, a book with a royal profile in silhouette holding a book caught my eye. Possessing an affinity for HRM, I was intrigued by the book’s scenario: what if the Queen of England came upon a mobile library and then proceeded to turn into (gasp!) a voracious reader? In Alan Bennett’s delightfully funny The Uncommon Reader, she does just that.

After stumbling upon a mobile library at Buckingham Palace, the Queen borrows a book, thinking it the polite thing to do. Little does she or her staff realize the extent to which such an innocuous action will lead, as she discovers the joy of reading. Bennett does a superb job of showing the commonality of reading, how each of us has the ability to transport ourselves to other lands, lead other lives, and open ourselves up to experiences and viewpoints not our own, reminding me of one of my favorite quotes: It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish. (S.I. Hayakawa)