Growing yourself through Books
I actually don’t like reading. It’s not fun, my mind wanders most of the time, and its hard to concentrate. So I find reading to be a bit of a chore. However, having said that, reading is perhaps the most potent activity that has has transformed the way I think and shaped my belief systems.The book that really made me appreciate reading, was Prey by Michael Crichton. This guy is amazing. With that book, he became one of my favorite authors. This book was so exciting that every short chapter had a cliffhanger that compelled you to keep on reading. But what really did it for me, was that he was able to imbue that book with so much hard science that I learnt so many thought provoking things. As a nerd, this was the perfect! Great engaging story with amazing science. After that, I never looked at books the same again, and now I read consistently. Most of the books I have read, have never come close to capturing that thrill ride. But now I knew why books were so important.
Depth of People
Whenever you chat to someone for a short while, you never quite get to really know them or their beliefs. There’s always this persona that’s presented. You need to spend a long time with someone, under varying conditions to really get to know them. With books however, when someone commits their belief system or experiences to paper, you can really get to understand the depth of they who they are. They take time to explain their ideas and perspective. And you listen. You can’t talk back. A good example of this is Albert Luthuli’s “Let my people go”. Hands down, one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. The depth, nuance and dignity of this man was profound. His command of the English is second to none, and getting to explore his ideas through his book, is something amazing. Reading gives us that ability to have some real insight into someones beliefs, character and vision.
Nuance of Subject
We live in a world of complex ideas now. And all too often we fall into bias of over simplifying ideas. This inevitably leads us to missing subtleties that are important. I find this happens a lot with YouTube videos that are very short and oversimplify complex ideas, and don’t really give you an appreciation for the the subject matter. Books on the other hand, really explore subjects to a great degree, examining all facets of an idea, and then counterpointing one idea against another. This depth is Fantastic. One major advantage of this is that you develop critical thinking skills. Which we could all do more of these days.
Enlightenment
Books bring about a rigorous study of the world, and with that comes a sense of awe and wonder of it; and that just talking about contemporary books. That really makes me wonder of all the amazing, insightful ideas that are hidden in the older books. I recall reading the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila which is a bit tedious to read, but nevertheless amazing. I’m not religious by any measure, however the insights around faith, dedication and prayer I found to be seriously enlightening. She presents information I’ve never seen anywhere else. This woman had so much faith, that the creator would consume her body and soul. Sounds fascinating, right!? Based on that small crumb of information I had to read the book. And the content opens your mind to things you’ve never considered around spirituality and how the world works. Books open your mind in ways you’ve never thought possible.
Conclusion
There are tons of books out there now. If we had a hundred lifetimes, we would never get through all of them. Books contain immersive knowledge that can only guide in positive way. We should all strive to read as many as possible .
Well, well, you caught me by surprise. I was expecting a post by some typical young person who has no time for reading, and found myself caught in an analysis that extols reading.
I am a person who spends 80% of my time either reading or writing...and yet, your post was so well written that you made me think and see even more beauty in the gift of reading.
An important part of reading for me, which you did not mention, but I feel was implied, is that every time I pick up a new well-written book, I travel to a new world where I become someone else, meet and love or hate but get to know other ways of thinking and so, for that time, I am living another life. I have probably read over 10,000 books over my 76 years which means I have lived/shared thousands of lives, loves, and ideas by the tens of thousands.
I would not get anywhere close to that from watching movies (though I enjoy them too).
Thank you for brightening the start of my day
:)
You've read 10000 books!! Wow! That's incredible :) I wish I could read that much. In fact I wish I could simply have a job just reading. That would be Great!
You're so right about books making you live vicariously. One thing I like doing every once in a while is reading a book from a different era. It's amazing to see how people lived life throughout the millennia. It can be a difficult read but I find it makes me so much more receptive to different worldviews.
What's your GoodReads page? I'd love to see what you've read and get some inspiration :)
I've read most of the classics, which I enjoyed, but not as much as other books, because I felt I had to stay aware of the writing, the ideas and so forth, so as to understand why they are considered classics.
:)
My preference is for Science Fiction & Fantasy. Basically my preference is for writers who concentrate more on creating characters who come to life and I can care about. Ideas can be exciting, but growing to love the characters gives more depth to the story.
I, myself, am a writer, but not a good one, first of all, I get ideas rushing at me so that I will use an idea within a page when others would expand it to fill 30 pages. However, I have had a few readers tell me that they loved certain of my characters.
My three fav readers were the one who asked if it is a true story and does Cherine really exist, as he really needs to know she does - and the second was the one who pleaded with me to send him the next books as Cherine has brought back to life his daughter who died at 8 years old and the third, was the guy who would take the day off from work whenever he could download the next book and within 2 days he would have read it (700 pages) and sent me comments and questions which showed me he really had read the books.
Here at Steemit there are no readers, but I am using this platform for placing my books on the blockchain, so I do not mind.
My dream? I would love to have the money to pay an anime artist to use the books for creating a series of anime/manga comics or cartoon videos (in the style of Ghibli Studios). That will have to remain a dream...