The Chronicles of Narnia made me believe I could slip into a wardrobe and emerge in a completely different world. I read stories, the titles of which I can no longer remember, about young girls embarking on thrilling adventures on wagon trains and fending for themselves, panning for gold. “I was a shy girl, but when I read, I was adventurous. In a 2014 Buzzfeed essay on the books that shaped her voice, author Roxane Gay offered an ode to the magic escapism of the written word: FYI: If you sign up for a MasterClass course by clicking on the affiliate links in this post, Radical Reads will receive a small fee that helps support the site.
