The Written Word

It’s kind of obvious I love reading. Someone asked me what do you read and I answered in all honesty “everything”. Presumptuous of me to say that. I obviously have not read everything and tend to gravitate towards certain themes in writing. I love autobiographies, like reading a series and absolutely adore reading things that will question my perspective and help me broaden it. 

Let’s get back to the autobiographies though for a bit. It is not titillating parts that are interesting nor are the parts that showcase a political situation that interests me, what I like reading about in autobiographies is the perseverance of the human sprit. The story that talks about the win against all odds. It’s great reading about the possible mind frame at that instance of time and then obviously the outcome. You may not like the author but the fact that a point of view and how a particular instance was handled based on that point of view is is worth reading. Why ? It’s free knowledge someone somewhere has faced a particular challenge and has acted in a way that is worthy of appreciation or not. It’s certainly worthy of attention. It allows one to relive that moment in their own mind and decide if it was correct or wrong. Knowledge without having to actually experience something similar.  I do have a problem with biographies; they are someone else’s view of a life lived by the protagonist and as such I read them with a pinch of salt. They do not provide any information on the state of mind or the reasoning of the protagonist. The only information provided by biographies is the point of view of the author. 

Let’s look at the perspective bit for a while. We all have biases (have written about them in many posts). Essentially we see things from rosé tinted glasses . Seeing someone else’s perspective on a idea or subject is refreshing and is also illuminating. I will never see the side of a sphere that is hidden from my view and as such I might not know that the other side has dents, a different colour etc. To be able to read something that describes the side of the sphere that was hidden from your view only would help you to understand the sphere in a manner that is more accurate that the current view which might be only at best fifty percent. 

What about a series? The underlying story might be nice; what keeps me hooked is the protagonist. How the protagonist weaves themselves through various situations is great to read. Again free knowledge. Someone somewhere thought up a situation and sent a character through it. Great way of explaining and exploring psychological and philosophical questions. And a great way to understand possible outcomes without the necessary physical experience and time. 

Finally why print and not digital ? My bias to hold a book. Crease it correctly so that pages don’t fall out. Smell of new paper and a whole lot more. Call me old school. I just don’t enjoy reading on a tablet. Maybe that too will change. I used to write in a note book; my thoughts that I wanted to pass to the kids. I blog now. Maybe the biggest reason to go digital would be the fact that we have run out of bookshelf space (the family does every few years and the answer has always been to upgrade or buy new storage) maybe a few more upgrades is all we can do in the current place after which I will have to seriously consider switching to digital. 

Keep reading and learning 

C