Speculative-fiction writers riff on reality like jazz musicians riff on standards, summoning strange new worlds, challenging assumptions, and subverting expectations. By journeying through these invented worlds, readers flex their own speculative muscles. Yoga for the imagination is invaluable in an evolving world where flexibility enables resilien

But Quentin believed in reading as a lifeline to the past—to the store of experience that made the foundation of our species. By assembling our thoughts like risers in a staircase the generations would climb. Those who could draw from this reservoir would exist beyond the jealous shackles of time, grasp the utterness of contingency, and know the wi

about by some other human living hundreds if not thousands of years before you. The Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca said that if you read old books, you get to add all the years the author lived onto your own life.