its #readabookday, and of course anyone who uses this hashtag naturally shares their favorite book. In the comments, people share their favorites as well, and it seems so natural to do that right? It’s organic and spontaneous.
Then again, the moment I start doing that, and want to ask others what their favorites are, I’m 100% sure it alienates non – readers. In fact there are quite a few people I personaly know who will outright think in their heads: ‘Fuck you Gary, for announcing to everyone how smart you are, because you read books, and how dumb I am, because I don’t read any books.’
Then you’ll think, oh screw people who think like that. That’s their problem right? And why should I care what others think?
But it’s actually a real problem, because I WANT people to read. I AM DESPERATE for people to read. Reading will not only improve their lives, it will improve the world. It will show people, who were content as to their view of the world previous to reading, worlds that show how so little of it we are actually aware of.
So if you were sitting around thinking you had already experienced your happiest, reading will make you 1000 times happier. It works for every emotion. If you though you had already experienced your saddest, reading will make you 1000 times sadder. If you thought you had already experienced enlightenment, reading will make you 1000 times more informed. If you thought you had already experienced idiocy, reading will make you see 1000 things more moronic. If you thought you already know what intelligence and aptitude looks like, reading will make you 1000 realize how brainless you are.
Living a life considering only what we see and hear and feel around us pales pitifully in comparison to how your world will be if you allowed yourself to view the way others see it, and the only way is to read. Without it you are living life sans the direction and oversight that will allow you a better appreciation of life.
I struggle to make comparisons, but here goes. Remember those round cardboard cylinders inside toilet paper? If you read, you see the whole world in its beauty, its ugliness, its various tints and hues and tones of shade and color. Not reading is like living life exclusively looking through one of those cardboard cylinders.
Reading is like having netflix and amazon and disney subscriptions, giving you access to emotions, sentiment, affectations and an understanding of other cultures, other peoples of all types, through their movies. You can get a better grip of why people do what they do, how they face their challenges and a glimpse of all the human passions from the amazing to the evil.
Not reading is like trying to appreciate movies via one black and white TV channel where the screen becomes static when the wind blows