Reading is over-rated

by yadda yadda 2 40 Replies latest jw friends

  • yadda yadda 2
    yadda yadda 2

    Have you ever seen people who just constantly read. They read at every given opportunity, at the gym, on the bus and train, at the beach, all weekend, even while holidaying overseas they mostly just read. You even see them going down the street holding a book while walking, like some kind of zombie. There's nothing more pitiful than a chronic book-worm. Reading is actually a very lonely and introverted activity and too much is unhealthy. Good advice for those trying to break free from the JW world and chronic apostate bookworms is to desist from all reading for a while. Take up dancing, sports, martial arts, yoga, running, and devote yourself to that and only that....get out of your head and into your body for a few months and you'll find incredible refreshment.

    "Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh." (Ecclesiastes 12:12)

    "There is a thousand times more value even in polishing the floor as it should be done than in writing twenty books." - G.I.Gurdjieff

    "The result is that much reading robs the mind of all elasticity, as the continual pressure of a weight does a spring, and that the surest way of never having any thoughts of your own is to pick up a book every time you have a free moment. The practice of doing this is the reason erudition makes most men duller and sillier than they are by nature and robs their writings of all effectiveness; they are in Pope's words: For ever reading, never to be read. " - Arthur Schopenhauer (Parerga and Paralipomena)

  • Chalam
    Chalam

    Hi,

    I don't think reading is bad in itself but it needs to be balanced with time for friends and family, work, JWN browsing ;)

    Some people listen to music all day long, some like to watch TV all day long.

    Ecclesiastes 3 (New International Version)
    A Time for Everything
    1 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under heaven:

    2 a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

    3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,

    4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

    5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

    6 a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

    7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

    8 a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

    My concern for many is that they aren't those mentioned here

    2 Timothy 3:7 (New International Version)

    7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.

    All the best, Stephen

  • thomas15
    thomas15

    My fellow firefighters at my local volunteer fire company call me "bookworm". The amount of time I put into being a volly firefighter is considerable, training, drills, state fire school, fundraisers and actual emergency calls. I do a lot of reading. I also have a BB in TKD, member of the high school Band Boosters (my kids play in the band), member of my church "Praise Team". I play the 5 string Banjo almost everyday and I read on average 1 book/week in addition to about 1 or more hours/day in the word. I work 40 hrs/week, spend about 10/week driving to work and read a considerable amount but less that time reading than my kids play video games or listen to ipods.

  • Hittman
    Hittman

    Good advice for those trying to break free from the JW world and chronic apostate bookworms is to desist from all reading for a while. Take up dancing, sports, martial arts, yoga, running, and devote yourself to that and only that....get out of your head and into your body for a few months and you'll find incredible refreshment.

    This is some of the worst advice I've ever seen on a recovery board.

    Yes, doing physical things is great. Even more importantly, getting out and meeting real (worldly) people is vital to a healthy recovery.

    But the real problem with being an ex is reclaiming your mind. You need exposure to ideas, lots and lots of them. Good ones, bad ones, smart ones, dumb ones. You should read and read and read some more. Novels, non-fiction, everything you can get your hands on.

  • keeshondgirl
    keeshondgirl

    after my husband and I stopped attenting meetings, we got rid of all the jw books and magazines. there is nothing wrong with reading, just as long as you arent' letting someone elses thoughts control your own thinking and reasoning. I am enjoying reading novels, and anything that has different information for me to learn compared to the witness books printed.

  • beksbks
    beksbks

    This is sarcasm, correct?

  • StAnn
    StAnn

    Hmmm. I keep books in my car so I can read at stop lights. Guess we're not soul mates, Yadda!

    But I still find time for JWN!

    St. Ann

  • mkr32208
    mkr32208

    I hope that this person is kidding...

  • gubberningbody
    gubberningbody

    I convert books and articles with IBM's text-to-speech and "Audrey" a british woman's voice into mp3's and go on long hikes/bike rides/runs. I suppose as a result of this I've "listened" to the Bible all the way through at least 7-8 times. There are so many books I've absorbed this way that I never would have had the patience to do so had I been forced out of circumstance to remain still. I think it's great. Some material doesn't lend itself to this sort of conversion, however plays, novels, history texts, psychology, sociology, philosophy and works of that sort do.

    I think of reading books in this way as listening to people who have something to say and a way of enlarging my world, whereas most conversation I have with people who are not engaged and interested in becoming more than they are I find make my world feel smaller, less colorful and constricted.

    No wonder I'm not at all missing the society at the hall. No one ever had anything to say. I suppose that's why I liked giving parts. I didn't have to listen to the insipid thoughts of others, instead others had to listen to my insipid thoughts.

  • rebel8
    rebel8

    I think he is kidding, because he quoted from books to say not to read books.

    Also seeing someone read at a gym doesn't mean they are only reading. I mean, they're at the gym for a reason and it's not to read. They're probably reading after a workout to unwind. Same for the other examples--those people probably are just taking breaks.

    Some people also have invisible physical limitations and that's why they're spending more time doing sedentary activities.

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