by yadda yadda 2 40 Replies latest jw friends
No it is not. The great libraries of the world have all the disciplines and histories of mankind collected in them. Many books have helped all kinds of people to stimulate their minds. Just think of the fields there are out there from A to Z. Of cause all things in moderstion, however, I do not agree with your thinking that reading is over-rated.
Mall Cop/ Bluebaldes.
NC - Congratulations on breaking free of the evil clutches of literature!
BOTR - Lighten up. It was a joke.
LOL BOTR---PLEASE read the following paragraph again, and tell me that it was not obvious.
"My eyes suffered, my brain was compressed, I would walk into walls for failure to look up, and one time I got a very nasty paper cut. Breaking the habit was hard. I had to turn on the TV, but there were temptations. When credits rolled, I found myself scanning them guiltily. When I would get the shakes and need a fix badly, I'd walk into the bookstore or the libarary and just breathe deeply. But this only tormented me and aggravated the cravings. Plus it put me in close proximity to other readers, and you know bad association spoils useful habits and all that . . ."
And look at my name. NewChapter. It indicates a love of reading and writing.
But that's okay. The board has been a bit contentious lately, which is exactly why I've been trying to post a bit more humor. We are all on edge, it seems, and assuming the worst. I guess I'm not exactly a master like Swift or Twain, but they certainly are heroes to me! Further proof I have not broken this nasty reading habit.
NC
Okay, so let me tell you what caused me to revive this thread. On another thread, Ohio Cowboy wanted to celebrate being with his partner for 10 years. Everyone that commented offered congratulations and thumbs ups. Except the author of this thread. He offered up a green pukey face. I found that odd and wasn't sure if he was joking. So I checked out some previous posts, because I don't know this poster at all. I mean, why would ANYONE, regardless of their stand on homosexuality, feel the need to post a green pukey face on a thread meant to be light and a celebration. It turns out----he probably wasn't joking.
Then I found he had started this thread. At first, I thought it MUST be satire! Nobody could really think that reading was a bad thing. But now that I have seen other posts, and then this thread, I think I understand the green pukey face.
And so I'd lilke to offer up my own opinion of the op.
NC
When I was a child I got teased for reading so much. Stuff like "why you wanna be white", "why you read so much", "you think you better than us cuz you read", etc, was said. I got called names too like Oreo and Stuck Up. On top of it all it didn't help that I didn't speak Ebonics, something that's kinda expected if you lived your formative years in the hood. As I think back on it I think my intense reading habit as a child was sort of an escape from my parents, the religion my parents choose to be in, and the area my parents raised me it. I don't regret ever having a love of reading and have successfully passed on that love to my children.
A little history for anyone that cares:
Some Slavery Codes made teaching, Mulatto, Indian and indentured slaves illegal. [ 2 ]
Books are a portal into different worlds and still the proven way to share knowledge and experiences across generations.
I don't think it's possible to read too much.
Stuff like "why you wanna be white",
Mrs. J, Sherman Alexie is a fabulous Native American writer that grew up on a reservation. In an essay, he said from a very young age he started dividing his life into grammatical units. I don't remember exactly how he worded it, but it was like, the chair would be the word, the room was a sentence, the house was a paragraph and the outside was the story. That kind of thing. HE GOT THE SAME REMARKS FROM THE OTHER KIDS! Why do you want to be white?
He goes back to the reservation and tries to engage the kids in learning, and to break through the cultural barrier that education is somehow 'white'.
The kids you grew up with should have been introduced to Frederick Douglass and the ingenius way he learned to read!
I shamelessly admit, that fiction has always been my drug of choice, and got me through a difficult childhood. I don't know if there is even such a thing as too much reading---although I have READ about a disorder where people cannot stop reading, and it becomes disruptive. So I guess technically, it could be a problem. But barring mental disorder, reading can never be over-rated.
NC
Another bookworm here. I can't read enough, in fact I wish I could take time off of my job right now to finish a massive series called "The History of Civilization" by Will and Ariel Durant. Sure, I think a person can read too much. Life is about a balance of body and mind, and also one should be informed by experience. But in my experience the problem isn't that people read too much, but that they don't read enough. Many often have strong opinions about subjects like evolution, the Bible and politics, yet have not read enough to have an informed view on the subject.
On being overly influenced by what one reads, I think that's solved by reading viewpoints by different authors. For instance, when studying religion, I'll read a book by an atheist and then one by a theologian.
And Schopenhauer and the others quoted wrote in a time where many probably did read too much as a diversion. Now the problem is too much television and facebook.
mindseye:
I have that whole series of The Story of Civilization" by Will and Ariel Durant but I haven't read it all since I dont have the time either but I have read quite a bit in some of the different books in the series. I have been collecting books for years now and have a couple of bookshelves at my apt and at my dad's as I have inherited his library. Right now I'm working on collecting all of Taylor Caldwell's books in hardback. I cherish the time I have to read and can't say enough on how it enriches my life.
LRG
I have more books that I will ever be able to realistically read. It's kind of a sickness. I just can't let them go. I still have my childhood copies of Mary Poppins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tom Sawyer, Wrinkle in Time, Little House in the Big Woods, Last of the Mohicans, Gulliver's Travels, Journey to the Center of the Earth----yes, I am so nuts I actually have a running inventory in my head!
NC
