Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Jan 11: Read More

Some people would probably find the way I treat books appalling.  If it is mine, I will dog ear pages, circle words, underline sentences, mark paragraphs, doodle, and scribble things in the margins until the book hardly resembles itself. This is not because I have no respect for the authors or the books themselves.  On the contrary, I am amazed at the entire journey of the written word from it's most rudimentary beginnings to it's current range and complexity.  Reading aloud to each other emotionally bonds people.  Children who read do better in school, have more extensive vocabularies, and a better grasp of the variances of phonics.  Avid readers have also proven to be more creative, have higher IQ's, are better at concentrating, more world aware, and are better conversationalists.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I have been reading "The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire."  I have enjoyed it's insights so much that I was kind of sad today when I finally finished it.  But because of the irreverent way I "read" books, I retain them much better.  I don't see them as a tidy little story between two covers that is present when I'm reading it, and then gone when I'm done.  I feast upon them, taking them into myself and making them a part of me.  Whether I am reading for enlightenment, escape, information, or out of curiosity, I am expanding my mind with each new idea.  And so as I finished the book, I made a promise to myself that I would read more often.  I might even make some dorky little chart like they make for elementary school students to encourage them.  I might join a book club.  Heck, I may even start my own.

"A house without books is like a room without windows."  ~Heinrich Mann

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