The Solitary Ritual: Reading as Refuge

Some evenings ask for very little: a quiet room, a soft light, and a book waiting to be opened. In those moments, reading becomes less about information and more about presence, it is a way of stepping out of the noise of the day and into a slower interior space.

For Phoebe Kim, reading is a deeply personal ritual. It is tied to the physicality of a book, the calm of a dimly lit room, and the quiet concentration that only solitude allows. We spoke with her about the environments that allow stories to unfold, the grounding weight of paper in a digital world, and how reading becomes a way of returning to oneself.

I love reading in a cosy atmosphere, not too bright and not too dark, but somewhere in between. I normally read before bed and the only lighting I have on is my night lamp. That brightness is the most ideal lighting for reading for me.

I mainly read at home as I lose focus when there’s too much sound in the surroundings. I seem to be able to immerse myself in the narrative only in the quietness.

In a digital world, it’s becoming incredibly difficult to stay offline or not be sucked into the labyrinth of other people’s lives through posts, reels, stories, and memes. Before I know it, I have squandered over an hour watching random things that don’t benefit me in any way. The action of reading from a tangible book connects me to the reality of what I’m consuming. I’m more conscious of what I’m reading and thinking about through the physical weight of paper. I think your mind is solely focusing on what is in front of you, which is how it should be when immersing yourself in a book.

In the fast-paced, loud, high-tech digital world we live in, reading is a crucial and powerful task to engage in; it’s almost like taking a breath of fresh air from the artificial intelligence era. I believe that it helps one to think more cohesively, slow down, expand knowledge, understand human intimacies, and sympathize. Reading a book is essential, especially in the modern day, and I hope we don’t all transfer our creations into an intangible, digital world.

Reading is a solitary journey and immersing myself in both fictional and real stories helps me shape and formulate my own thoughts. Engaging in a solitary activity such as writing or reading is an intimate way of bonding with myself.

I learn more and more about myself when I read and sometimes get so involved that I feel like I am the fictional character that I’m reading about. I learn more about human connections vicariously through fictional novels and learn about selfhood and wisdom from non-fiction memoirs. Stepping into any narrative elevates my understanding of the real or made-up world by being an observer, and it’s a wonderful experience.

Reading books in general helps me to slow down my pace and tune into the world the author has created. If I could choose one book to recommend, it would be Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet.

There are myriad concepts discussed in this short collection of letters from a poet to a novice poet. Some of the themes that left an indelible impression on me were meditations on solitude, love, and the concept of ephemerality.

“It is good to be alone, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult should be one more reason to do it. To love is also good, for love is hard. Love between one person and another: that is perhaps the hardest thing it is laid on us to do, the utmost, the ultimate trial and test, the work for which all other work is just preparation.”