Do not laugh. The art of reading is like the art of love making.

Both arts are states of integration, of unity, of interaction, of communication with another being, that is, these beings are in communion. When we read we are in communion with the characters. When we make love, we are in communion with the one we love.

We can say that all processes have preparation, development and outcome or final stages, and here is where I want to delve in to this analysis and comparison of these arts.

- Preparation:

We all understand and know that, to make love with art, it is best to have a prelude that starts with the look, the voice, the attraction and insinuating gestures. This may start as early as when we choose our clothes for a prior dinner with candlelight, accompanied by romantic music and a good wine to be consumed in moderation. What this couple is actually doing is keeping away the problems of reality, the everyday bustle, and isolating themselves from the world, to dedicate themselves to each other in body and soul.

Yes, to read with art we also need a preamble that starts by finding a comfortable, illuminated, quiet place, away from noise and interruptions, where we can focus and disregard what surrounds us. To enter the world the book offers us, we must abandon the reality we live in. A good exercise is reading and re-reading the title of the book. If we start reading, thinking and meditating on what the title evokes it will help us to enter that new world; if we are going to continue reading at another time or day, remembering the events and visualizing the characters, and the place of the action will help us to quickly reach the point of reading with art, we will be, as they say, giving our body and soul to the book. And why not caress and smell it? I have caught myself doing it!

We said above that after the preparation, we go into the process of development.

- The development:

The art of love starts with caresses that are feelings transmitted through our senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing. Yes, smelling the perfume of the loved one and showing that we enjoy it is a caress; so is a kiss. Anyway, this whole loving game is started with sight and with a whisper caress to express the feeling of love. At this stage, we enjoy giving and receiving love. Perhaps, this loving courtship is more pleasant than the end.

You might wonder: what is the analogy to the art of reading? Well, during the reading of the tale, novel or poem with art, we also use our five senses to imagine what the narrator transmits to us with his words, phrases, verses, paragraphs and chapters. They give us love as food to our spirit. Readers pay them back by reading their work.

- The result:

Both arts refer to the enjoyment that ends the process. Both the art of love and the art of reading have an end, after reaching a climax of enjoyment or pleasure. We could say that what happens is the total surrender to the feeling of love. In both cases, after the climax and the end, we also go through a stage of returning to reality, which in the case of the art of love it manifests itself through care for the other and, in the art of reading, through a consideration and meditation of what the author communicated to us.
Now I am aware as to why I titled my first book of short stories: “Orgasm of Colors, Unforgettable Stories”

©Marcos Patricio Concha Valencia