Books!

Books are wonderful things! (And just to be clear, I am talking about actual, physical books made out of paper, not the digital kind where the print appears on a screen.) Think about it. When you open a book, you’re reading someone’s mind; you’re listening to their thoughts. When I read, I actually hear a voice inside my head speaking directly to me. The author may have been dead for hundreds of years, but they can speak to you from the grave. William Shakespeare’s been dead for over four hundred years and yet when you read one of his plays, it’s like he’s right there talking to you. Also, the author may be from a distant place, somewhere in the world to which you’ll never travel. And yet, through a book, you are there. Across space and time, books speak to the reader.

And, unlike people, a book has infinite patience. If you don’t understand something, you can go back and re-read it, as many times as it takes, until you do. When I was in school, if a teacher followed a textbook closely, I did well in the class. I could just read the book until I understood the material. I remember back in high school that I was absent for a week because I was in the choir and the group took a trip to Washington, D. C. I took my textbooks to try and keep up with my schoolwork. And I did. When I returned to school, my trigonometry class had a test. I was the only student in the class who got an “A” despite being out of class for a week. In college, the professors often didn’t follow a textbook and, as a result, I was in trouble in those classes.

Of course, there are millions of books to choose from and you only have one short lifetime. The trick is knowing which books are worth reading. If you need some help, I suggest you make use of lists. There are lots of book lists on the internet. One great source is “Goodreads,” a website for book lovers. It has a plethora of lists to choose from.

I hope my books are worth your time!