"That is the reason you should read a book, from time to time. Whenever you are left with nothing, to have something to think about the book in order to not feel alone"
This is the conclusion from a post in "From the people who are boasting about their studies but are not reading any books" (Romanian only).
This is the conclusion from a post in "From the people who are boasting about their studies but are not reading any books" (Romanian only).
Photo by David Iskander on Unsplash
The quote stroke a chord with me because resonated with an old idea "there are many educated people but only some are cultivated". Or about people who are in a highly visible social roles but are embarrassing themselves when talking or expressing an idea. You know who you are, social clowns! Their life is more than enough and they preach from their position, lacking the understanding that many more others have been in their shoes and somehow conversed in a more polished or elegant way.
Another title of this post could be "you lost a parallel/inner life when you haven't read books".
I am not here to justify why I read books but to analyze why the books are subverted by other media channels. There is a lack of understanding why books are totally different than what you may find on internet. Many people around me declare they don't have time to read books. I am shocked hearing that when, in fact, the time spent online has been soaring for years and there is a new breed of companies feasting on our browsing patterns (thanks Google, you will be remembered for the mushrooming SEO experts).
For many people, books are changing their view about people and life and how to judge and to enjoy life. The books changed me more than what I experienced. The books conveyed ideas that I could not imagine being created by my mind. For the ones wanting comparisons to reading books ...
Are you reading books to validate your ideas or to change something in you? Everyone has a different reason for reading (even books are intended for many purposes - cooking, romance, architecture, photography, romance, SF, politics, adventure, economy, etc...). The one-line-idea I try to convey is "reading can change you, can move you on a different thinking trajectory and definitely leaves you with many questions to rummage through".
The books, for me, are like many voices articulating ideas you struggle with, some of them you regurgitate, some of them turn your point of view one-eighty degrees, some of them open some "cave-thinking" options, but here it is something the "not-readers" do not understand: you cannot get there just by yourself, even if somebody is telling you "the summary". In order to comprehend an idea, you need the context, the history, the evolution, the struggles, the whole evolution which cannot be compressed in a few hundred words.
A book exposes an universe which leaves you richer if you have the patience and apply the concentration to follow it. Once you read and think/question/talk internally about the content of a book you understand what does mean to enrich your life with a different view. Your own life cannot bring you so many experiences you can find in books.
P.S The photo I chose for this post has also a meaning - reading has to force you on jotting down ideas, questions, or even to allow you to applaud. Unfortunately we are not taught how to really read a book. Bring your notepad, copy the ideas you like, write down your thoughts or, more importantly, your questions. Whenever you will re-read books, they will help you tremendously, like a muscle you develop and can help you when you are not expecting it.
The quote stroke a chord with me because resonated with an old idea "there are many educated people but only some are cultivated". Or about people who are in a highly visible social roles but are embarrassing themselves when talking or expressing an idea. You know who you are, social clowns! Their life is more than enough and they preach from their position, lacking the understanding that many more others have been in their shoes and somehow conversed in a more polished or elegant way.
Another title of this post could be "you lost a parallel/inner life when you haven't read books".
I am not here to justify why I read books but to analyze why the books are subverted by other media channels. There is a lack of understanding why books are totally different than what you may find on internet. Many people around me declare they don't have time to read books. I am shocked hearing that when, in fact, the time spent online has been soaring for years and there is a new breed of companies feasting on our browsing patterns (thanks Google, you will be remembered for the mushrooming SEO experts).
For many people, books are changing their view about people and life and how to judge and to enjoy life. The books changed me more than what I experienced. The books conveyed ideas that I could not imagine being created by my mind. For the ones wanting comparisons to reading books ...
- reading is like remembering a fine wine you had drunk ten years ago and now, when you are thinking about it, you discover a new flavor
- it is like a mind door you open when nobody is there to help you in dire situations (no, I am not referring to doctor Google)
- it is like a new language you discover and talk with other people; there are nuances only you and them can understand and enjoy because of it
- it is like when you ponder about (your) life and can understand more based on shades and lights
- Everybody lacks time for reading. We have the summary, the business-note, the one-line-idea. There are whole web-sites to extract the essential and serve it to you. We live in Twitter, Facebook and very annoying, Instagram era. You swirl a few lines, a link to the source and that's it.
- The concentration needed to read and understand a text just disappeared. There are books debating the idea (The shallows - What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, The filter bubble : what the Internet is hiding from you) which shows that browsing and the current news delivery transformed us in dummies, who are happy to "herd-thinking". I recently sent an email and the recipient just quickly replied, "Wow, it is so long!". The irony was that the whole email was intended for that person, and she was exhausted from the beginning by the length of it! It seems our mind can only comprehend piecemeal ideas, we cannot concentrate or even conceive reading something longer than a page.
- Unfortunately, even today, there are books wasting a lot of pulp tree (coincidentally, we refer them as "pulp fiction" - yes, reading is also an enjoyment and dreaming in someone else's imaginary life). Many are thinking that is the rule for many books out there.
- There are books hard to read, to understand the vocabulary and especially to follow the imaginary framework. The writer is leading but cannot help you if your mind muscle is weak on following him.
Are you reading books to validate your ideas or to change something in you? Everyone has a different reason for reading (even books are intended for many purposes - cooking, romance, architecture, photography, romance, SF, politics, adventure, economy, etc...). The one-line-idea I try to convey is "reading can change you, can move you on a different thinking trajectory and definitely leaves you with many questions to rummage through".
The books, for me, are like many voices articulating ideas you struggle with, some of them you regurgitate, some of them turn your point of view one-eighty degrees, some of them open some "cave-thinking" options, but here it is something the "not-readers" do not understand: you cannot get there just by yourself, even if somebody is telling you "the summary". In order to comprehend an idea, you need the context, the history, the evolution, the struggles, the whole evolution which cannot be compressed in a few hundred words.
A book exposes an universe which leaves you richer if you have the patience and apply the concentration to follow it. Once you read and think/question/talk internally about the content of a book you understand what does mean to enrich your life with a different view. Your own life cannot bring you so many experiences you can find in books.
P.S The photo I chose for this post has also a meaning - reading has to force you on jotting down ideas, questions, or even to allow you to applaud. Unfortunately we are not taught how to really read a book. Bring your notepad, copy the ideas you like, write down your thoughts or, more importantly, your questions. Whenever you will re-read books, they will help you tremendously, like a muscle you develop and can help you when you are not expecting it.
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