The importance of books – more comments
2 Comments »16th May, 2007; Category: Books
A few months ago I wrote an article called The Importance of Books. This article has had several people commenting on what I was saying. One comment that was posted today really caught my attention and I’d like to quote from it here:
Nick said, “Well, I read very few [books] unfortunately. Many books bore me to death, especially fantasy and science-fiction (not all). I eventually found that they were excellent soporifics, so my money wasn’t wasted after all.
But, the thing is, when I read I want to be absorbed by the knowledge, I want to learn and think immediately. This is the reason why I tend to read essays, philosophical ones most of the time. I want to see the world with a different perspective. Ideas must pour out of the words, and amaze me. I enjoy very precise and intelligent expression, metaphors. The whole must enlighen me, and push me to learn more. Only a few books manage to keep my attention in such ways, nowadays.
I think that Nick has tapped into the real value of reading books.
For the vast majority of people, books in the genres of crime, fantasy and romance (just to pick three that immediately come to mind) are read purely for their entertainment value. These books also provide escapism from the real world. Using books (and movies) in this way is quite valid and can give your life a much needed balance. It is refreshing to the mind and body to “lose†oneself in a story.
The real life-changing value comes from books that challenge our thinking, books that help us to develop a better world view, books that “rattle our cages†and help us to see old familiar things in new ways.
My thanks to Nick for his thoughtful comments. They made me think.
Book Review: Against a Peacock Sky
Against a Peacock Sky written by Monica Connell. Published by Penguin Books (Viking) in 1991.
Monica Connell grew up in Northern Ireland and is an anthropologist who went to live in a rural village in Nepal. She lived and worked for two years with a Nepali family, sharing their celebrations, their hardships, their food and their hard labour in the fields to provide a subsistence living. One family took her in, sharing their everyday lives on a very personal level with her, allowing her to virtually become one of the family.
Monica witnessed first hand the villagers’ way of life. She learned how to care for the animals, how to plant and harvest rice and the best way to hunt a boar. She relates the significance of their many religious ceremonies, beliefs and festivals. She relates – without any hint of being judgmental – the importance of various customs employed to appease the local gods in order to have a successful crop or produce healthy animals.
This is a fascinating account of life in rural Nepal as it has been for many centuries and had remained largely untouched by outside influences. Here and there in her narrative, however, there are hints of change in their somewhat cloistered existence. Outside pressures were beginning to show. For example, one young man finds work building roads in nearby India, and he leaves permanently. The old ways were beginning to change, and I suspect if the author returned to that village today there would be many more changes apparent.
I would suspect that this book is now out of print. I bought mine via the internet as a used copy after I had experienced a touch of Nepali life when I went to visit there in 2006. To read more of my impressions of life in Nepal, go to my Travel Blog, then go to the Contents on the sidebar, or click on several of the Categories, also on the sidebar.
Lurking with books
I love lurking with books.
Let me explain. I am foremost a writer. (Okay – if you’ve read my About page I was sidetracked in teaching for 35 years).
Because I am writer I am also a reader.
Because I am a reader, I love books.
Because I love books, I lurk in bookshops. A lot. Sometimes too much.
Because I spend so much time in bookshops I buy far too many books. I’m going to have to make a few extra bookshelves very soon. (I also love making things with wood.) I am also going to have to earn a great deal more from my writing in order to feed my book addiction. (I recently read on someone’s blog that they had a book “addition” problem. Yeah – I have that too. I’m not sure if it was a typo or deliberate, but I like it.)
Sad News:
I have two pieces of sad news about books:
- I have just found out that a major Australian bookshop chain is about to open a new store right here in my home town of Murray Bridge. Previously I had to drive an hour to go to any large bookshop. Now it will be only five minutes away. Poor me.
- This morning I checked Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger site. He relates how he spent several hours in a Melbourne bookshop reading about himself in a book. Now, that’s rather funny – and also a little sad. Not sad that he wants to read about himself but sad because I can’t yet do the same. I must keep at this writing game, become moderately famous and then be able to spend time in a bookshop reading about myself. The ultimate ego trip.
Of Books and Bookshops
We went to Adelaide on Wednesday to do some shopping. When in our capital city Adelaide I try to squeeze in at least some time in a couple of favourite bookshops. I’m a sucker for spending time in bookshops and I have a few specialist areas in each shop where I tend to spend more time in than others. One interesting area I often frequent is the travel section. So many places to go, so many interesting books about the journeys of others and so many maps. (I collect maps as a hobby.)
This time I deliberately avoided the travel section. I have enough books and magazines to read already without adding to the several rather considerable piles awaiting my attention. Besides that, when I look at travel books, atlasses and other maps I tend to get an uneasy feeling. Some people call it itchy feet. Others call it wanderlust. Catching the travel bug. Perhaps it is the call to adventure, of other places, of destinations not yet reached.
Perhaps it is time I went on a holiday somewhere.No – I haven’t got time – I’m too busy reading the three books I bought in another section.