Reading, for me, is entertainment and an escape from the real world. But it can also inform and stretch the boundaries of the life I live.
"If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart."
I can never read this without thinking of Cary Grant's "holly in my heart" line, in An Affair to Remember. The only clip I could find is here (at the 4:35 mark): http://www.cornel1801.com/video/Affair-Remember/lovevideo.html.