Literary musings
Some time back I mentioned that I would occasionally talk about books. I loooove books! When I'm feeling down, all I have to do is walk into a bookshop, preferably Borders, but in a crunch, any shop will do, and smell the new books around me, and I instantly perk up! I have bought more books than I can read in the next 5 years, and keep buying more every month....
I was talking with friends about books that have changed my life and was surprised by some of their answers. Some said that they can't remember ANY book that has had that effect on them, while others said that books are not that important to them to say "ah, this book has changed my life". Amazingly, no one even thought of citing their main religious book, be it the Bible, the Koran or whatever, as a book that had changed his/her life.
I am wondering whether I am an oddity, or maybe I have used the wrong word in describing significant books? Maybe I actually meant books that have changed my way of looking at things? But again, no. I really have read books that have changed my life, in terms of my way of living, my way of thinking, my beliefs about myself and the world around me. Off hand, of course the Bible is at the top of the list, followed by "I know this much is true", "The Diary of Anne Frank", "Eternity in their hearts", "Through Gates of Splendor", "Shadow of the Almighty", "The Hiding Place", "Borrowed Time", "Becoming a Man", "Long Walk to Freedom", "The Rape of Nanking", "Life and Death in Shanghai", and some of the books on the Holocaust. I could go on and on, but these are the books I will remember for as long as I live and I remain lucid! Each of them taught me different things, each of them inspired me.
To me, the power and the beauty of the written word, as opposed to reading about stuff in magazines or on-line, is the timelessness and the timeliness of the message, regardless of when the words were actually written. Words have the power of putting ideas, dreams and visions in the minds of the reader, words that hopefully will lead to action and change, either in the person or in society. Ultimately, I hope that most writers write with that goal and that wish in mind, that they can move someone, anyone, many "ones".
Finally, maybe that's why I write a blog, and keep it going. The wish to share in the history of the written word, words that will live on in cyberspace even after I am no longer writing or maybe, no longer living. Grandiose? Maybe. Still, I can dream, right?
I was talking with friends about books that have changed my life and was surprised by some of their answers. Some said that they can't remember ANY book that has had that effect on them, while others said that books are not that important to them to say "ah, this book has changed my life". Amazingly, no one even thought of citing their main religious book, be it the Bible, the Koran or whatever, as a book that had changed his/her life.
I am wondering whether I am an oddity, or maybe I have used the wrong word in describing significant books? Maybe I actually meant books that have changed my way of looking at things? But again, no. I really have read books that have changed my life, in terms of my way of living, my way of thinking, my beliefs about myself and the world around me. Off hand, of course the Bible is at the top of the list, followed by "I know this much is true", "The Diary of Anne Frank", "Eternity in their hearts", "Through Gates of Splendor", "Shadow of the Almighty", "The Hiding Place", "Borrowed Time", "Becoming a Man", "Long Walk to Freedom", "The Rape of Nanking", "Life and Death in Shanghai", and some of the books on the Holocaust. I could go on and on, but these are the books I will remember for as long as I live and I remain lucid! Each of them taught me different things, each of them inspired me.
To me, the power and the beauty of the written word, as opposed to reading about stuff in magazines or on-line, is the timelessness and the timeliness of the message, regardless of when the words were actually written. Words have the power of putting ideas, dreams and visions in the minds of the reader, words that hopefully will lead to action and change, either in the person or in society. Ultimately, I hope that most writers write with that goal and that wish in mind, that they can move someone, anyone, many "ones".
Finally, maybe that's why I write a blog, and keep it going. The wish to share in the history of the written word, words that will live on in cyberspace even after I am no longer writing or maybe, no longer living. Grandiose? Maybe. Still, I can dream, right?
Labels: Books
posted by Heather @ 12:17 PM
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