Really enjoyed this essay on the joy of reading, by James Pew.
4 Likes
I told myself that, as an inveterate bibliophile, I would only buy books that I know I would want to read more than once. WellâŚit didnât stop me buying a lot, but it helps a tiny percent?! lol.
So that means that EVEN if itâs âcheap entertainmentâ like fantasy, it has to be well written or good âworldsâ that you will re read. So it curbs a bit of spendingâŚ
2 Likes
I have purchased many books I thought would be worth reading based upon recommendation and personal interest only to find out they were not good books, consequently my personal library has lots of âfluffâ.
One of the main reasons I read is my interest in the history of ideas, Iâve no original ones of my own.
âReading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.â Schopenhauer
2 Likes
I recently came across this video.
his 1 Book Has Produced More Geniuses Than Any University in History
Great channel if youâre into critical thinking. Before you roll your eyes on why I choose this video with the effect Euclid had on great minds, rather than is other videoâs with book recommendations, is because like most humans walking on earth, I suffered thru high school and college math. A chore. I notice most adults actually fear math.
It wasnât until I began trading that I reviewed my algebra and geometry and saw the beauty and spirituality innate in the field of math. Wish one of those math professors would have instilled the love of numbers, but that wasnât how it was meant to be.
You could go the fictional route and learn these skills too. My mother was compulsive reader of Mystery novels and who dunn it?
Agatha Cristie and Sherlock Holmes teach deductive and inductive reasoning and they entertain people. Not my cup of tea but not a waste of time either.
While I donât disagree at all with Schopenhauer, you only live a certain amount of years and you only have so much time. And if youâre the type of person that has multiple interests, worked to develop various skillsets, then you can avail yourself to lifetimes of other peopleâs experiences and download that into your brain information that would be impossible to do on your own.
Sometimes I donât want âinformationâ from a book. I want to trigger my creative juices and challenge my imagination. I discovered Sigurd E F. Olson. Reviews will tell you he was an environmentalist. Bahhh. He takes you into beautiful spaces and you see within your minds eye a living and breathing landscape.
He discovered âThe thingâ whatever that thing is and however you relate to that cosmic thing thru his journeys. Not everyoneâs cup of tea but I was always a fan of Thoreau and I think he took it to the next level
6 Likes