The Books Briefing: How Writers Try On New Perspectives

Both reading and writing are exercises in perspective: attempting to see the world through the eyes of an author or audience, or to step inside the mind of the writer or character on the page. That process is an important part of people’s moral and emotional development, which is why the philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein argues that kids can be taught early on to interrogate their own perceptions. Reading may challenge the ideas you take for granted—or, as the author Dinaw