In the last two years the lawyer reads a little bit of everything. Why is this?

In his last two years of self-imposed seclusion, the lawyer reads a number of books randomly in preparation for his reentry into society. By this time, he may have lost his focus upon reality; he may be attempt to understand differing perspectives of life by reading various works to gain insight into the thinking of others and their views of the contemporary world. 

His reading suggested a man swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship and trying to save his life by greedily clutching first at one spar and then at another.

Shut away from the rest of humanity, the banker's prisoner has lost his hold on reality. Without the bonds of communication with others, there is no direction to his life. There is no meaning or purpose because the meaning in an individual's life depends upon the sharing of ideas and feelings. "No man is an island unto himself," John Milton wrote, and his words are profoundly true. The prisoner's reading is indiscriminate because he can find no meaning in what he reads without the experience of real life and human relationships by which he can measure an author's thoughts and expression. Human relationships are also essential for the expression and sharing of one's own ideas. Reading enriches the mind, but it cannot nurture the heart. Only human communication can do this.