PERHAPS one day in the not-too-distant-future reading actual books will be seen as a very unusual and quirky activity, along with cursive writing and NOT playing war games online with millions of other gamers. Perhaps my great grandchildren will look at old photos of me and say to themselves, "Whoa! He really read books?" But they may not understand will they? They may not know the miracle and wonder of books, and how they not only expand our minds and souls but transport us into the lives of uncounted characters from all ages. I pity them if in their lives books are but rustic antiques of another age. They will miss one of the great gifts of life: books.
Like many of you I was fortunate to begin reading at a young age and by the time I was 9 or 10 was reading great epic novels like The Big Sky by Guthrie, or heart filling books like Big Red by Kjelgaard, or the adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. My love affair with books began at a young age in the quiet hours of winter, high in the Sierra's in my mountain home as snow drifted outside. I was safe and engaged in another world with mythic warriors, and beloved dogs, and bold pioneers. Their lives and trials and wisdom were shared with me, just a country boy who thrilled with their stories and adventures.
I tried to calculate for this post how many books I've read over the years and could not come to an accurate total, but it's somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 books. I mean right now, today, I've got three books going. I'll jump from one to the other as my mood guides. I'm reading Steven Pressfields' Alexander, the Virtues of War, and an exceptional book by Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart, on Buddhist psychology, and a fun novel by Bernard Cornwell, Death of Kings
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Indeed, I consider The Wise Heart to be one of the best books I've ever read, and in fact am on my 4th reading. This book is a compendium of Buddhist wisdom on how to live a fulfilling and peaceful life. I highly recommend it.
Back in the fall of 2007 when the economy was on the knifes edge and construction was dead in the water I took ill. I was a construction sub contractor. This near-perfect storm devastated my income and bank account. I had to sell my library. Books I had collected over a life time went to another. I saved a few but most were gone. Hundreds of books, some quite valuable, went out the door in boxes. Broke my heart. But now my library is on the build once more.
Above: a portion of my growing library.
I did save some of my favorites: a collection of Louis L'Amour westerns along with several volumes from Larry McMurtry of Lonesome Dove fame. And there were some historical fiction books as well from C.S. Forester and Bernard Cornwell, and Steven Pressfield. I managed to save War and Remembrance from Herman Wouk.
Actually this book changed my life. I was thirty years old when I read this book, a two volume epic of WWII. I came upon the verse pictured below telling of a young jewish girl being led to the gas chamber with her mother. It was a cathartic moment. I had recently become aware of the atrocities of war, the hideous pathological activities of corrupt bankers and capitalists who funded and promoted war and this paragraph hit my heart and soul with a blow that that inflamed me. I vowed I would dedicate myself to peace, to working toward the end of war. Thus it is that at this very time I am writing a series on my blog entitled "The Roots of War, The Hope of Peace". Dedicated to all the little children who have perished in war. Even as I write this my soul shudders. Such is the power of a book.
Ah yes, books bring to us the ever lasting strife between good and evil. Who, having read the trilogy, The Lord of the Rings is left untouched? These books speak a language of soul and heart that move us and change us, and hopefully make us better and wiser persons.
Of course I've read a good many self-help books from Loving What Is by Byron Katie to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (well, that little gem is not necessarily a self-help book but it sure helped me!)
Alright. I ramble. So I will conclude with two more of my favorites that I highly recommend. These will appeal to male readers mostly because they deal with war and martial arts but are both far more than that. The first is The Religion by a great word master, Tim Willocks. This is a wild adventure and love story that takes place on the island of Malta in 1565 as the Muslims besiege Christian fortifications. The Christian knights named themselves The Religion. It is a fascinating book and next to The Lord of the Rings is my very favorite. A true masterpiece.
The second book I strongly suggest you read is to Japan what Gone With the Wind is to readers here in the US. Musashi is a brilliantly written epic of a young man who becomes the greatest swordsman of all time. Of course it is also a love story, but much more. This book captures the deep commitment to spiritual path that transforms a warrior into a holy man. It is truly a classic to be cherished and held in the highest of esteem in anyones library.
And so there you have it my friends, a brief foray into my heart and my library. We are so blessed to have the voices of so many authors speak to us from their creations, books.
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Such wonderful writing, Christopher! I really do love how you express yourself through words. BTW, today is World Book Day and #WorldBookDay is trending on twitter.
I struggled to read when I was really young. They tried to label me "Learning Disabled" or something silly like that. The truth of the matter was I just wasn't interested in Sally, Dick and Jane, when I had a forest behind my house where I could really get out and explore.
Later on I dropped out the first month of my 11th grade, took the GED and passed it without even preparing and started going to college earlier. There the literary world of especially non fiction opened up to me and exploded my interest. I started off studying Psychology, which quickly spread in all sorts of directions. I literally devoured every book I could find on many subjects in the libraries of 3 nearby universities. That was nearly 40 years ago and I'm still super curious.
Now I have a digital library of several million files, which include probably somewhere around 700,000 to a million ebooks. Not that I've read them all. LOL. The rest are instructional audio/video, documentaries, lectures, courses, etc. of everything that interests me, as well as over 400,000 music files and maybe 10,000 films and TV programming.
I am actually in the very preliminary phase of researching how to make this library available online in a Foundation, placing it on the blockchain and creating an ICO. Anyway, just posted again... Many Blessings
Holy cow! That archive of yours is remarkable. Truly. I am glad you shared all of this about yourself. It sounds like you've had a very noteworthy journey. Would like to hear more. Hope you post about that. Blessings.
Although technology may change the physical aspects of books, as they become more didgitalized, the content of books will continue to be created and consumed going forward, in my opinion.
Enjoyed your reading list.
I think what may interrupt reading will be the advent of near-perfect virtual reality, which thing the pro's who predict such things, say will happen by 2040.
Good point. It may have been Star Trek Voyager that spoke of Holodeck Novels.
I'm still dealing a bit from being a proud veteran, to one realizing War is a Racket. I've not read the book you quoted, but it looks very good. The first book I read that opened my eyes was about Japan and the atom bombs. Reverse shadows imprinted in the concrete from the blast as it vaporized the human casting the shadow. Whew! It's one thing when warriors battle, but killing civilians goes against my grain.
Good luck contestant #9 in the contest!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention another favorite " From Mutt to Poodle in Two Days", by Ima Hownd. Yes, I know it is a difficult pill (red) to swallow to discover war is a racket. Blessings.
Oh man that is a lot of books!!! I'm wondering how many I have read in my lifetime.
I was sad when you had to sell some of the books during the economic crunch :(
Yeah, I always dreamt of having a great library. Could picture it in my mind. Well, there is still time. Blessings.
That is also my dream having a great library. I have a couple of bookshelves but not enough to warrant its own room.
I want a thousand books in one room!
2,500 books read seemed a bit high to me. I recalculated, as best I could, and think my number is lower. Perhaps 1,750 to 2,250 somewhere. Yeah, it would be cool to have an actual library room. I've visualized such a thing many times.
@mistermercury you never cease to amaze!
More than 2500 books sound like a daunting task and I will probably never get to that number.
Well, I started young and we had no TV for many years. By that time I was hooked. Blessings.
What a great collection, i do hope that books do not die out for the next generation, they would be seriously missing out on so much knowledge too 😊
Someone pointed out that today is World Book Day. How appropriate you and the wiz sponsored this challenge. My grandchildren are all readers, which thing I truly love. I imagine most books will be digitalized in the future. Perhaps some books will have their own virtual reality apps. Ultimately I think it is books that have lifted us up from very low level survival behaviors. There is hope, where there are books. Blessings.
'There is hope where there are books'
Never a truer word spoken my friend
This post was upvoted by the Steemit Book Project! The project exists to help make books more available to the world and to promote book-related content on Steemit.
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Hope you have a wonderful and bookfull day!
Hey! glad you stopped by. I will definitely come check out your projects. Blessings. By the way, apparently today is World Book Day. Blessings.
Loved the journey through your books:
How engaging those lines are, and reminders for me of the comfort books brought me, the escape to other worlds. I'm reading a Kornfield one at the moment, in fact, I'm surprised at how often he pops up on Steemit!
Well, you tell on yourself by the books you read. Kornfield is certainly an exceptional person. Blessings @riverflows. Don't know if you are connected to @wwf and @earthmother and @carey-page but from looking briefly at your blog I think you would find some good friends here at Stewards of Tera Mater.
Thanks heaps for that! I'm always grateful for new connections, appreciated!
I think of all the folks who are illerterate through no fault of their own, and what they are missing out on. The joy of holding a book in your hands and being transported into whole other worlds. The thrill of adventures to unknown lands. The beauty of poetry. I learned to read long before I went to school. I was so disappointed on the first day of school when I found out I would have to follow along with the beginner readers. I was far beyond that. Right now my biggest disappointment in life is that there are no public libraries here. Thank goodness for the internet and for the talented writers here on Steemit. I wouldbe so lost without having good reading material.
Indeed, books are the original Virtual Reality but one that linked itself so nicely with daily life. One could say I am who I am because of books and the lessons I learned from them. Thanks for the kind comments. Many blessings.
Love your books and some people will love reading real books in the future for sure. Maybe just my kids if I were to ever have some. My mother taught me at home for years. We had so many books. I like your books.
Greetings. Glad you stopped by. Grateful you have an appreciation for good books. And I do hope you have children one day. Blessings.
Awesome. Thanks.
Nice one,is good to read widely.
You have my upvote.
Thanks for stopping by and fo the upvote. Appreciate it.
you are welcome
I majored in literature and the this moving away from psychical copies is upsetting. There is something about holding the book in your hand that is lost when we switch to digital formats but maybe I am just old fashioned.
If you like to read I would certainly suggest taking a look at Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. It is an unusual little novel but it has a lot to offer a reader both as entertainment and as the subject of examination from an academic perspective.
I will definitely look into it. Thanks for the tip. I'm always on the hunt for new authors. Blessings.
Reread your comment. There is a presence around books isnt there. I've always imagined that libraries not only hold the books but the energy of the all the authors. I really do believe books are imbued with the spirit energy of the ones who penned them.
Video games, movies...
The value of books has been lost to many. I don't think there is a Louis L'Amour book I haven't read at least twice. I have too many favorite books to even come up with titles. The list is endless.
Actually, for SteemIt, I must mention "Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman.
Alright! I'll check it out. Yeah, L'Amour was something. So easy to read. So simple, but a superb story teller.
I had the advantage of growing up among books too! My mother read to us on the homestead outside Homer Alaska. Black Beauty, Burrhead's Confessions, The Good Earth just a few I remember. There wasn't any other form of entertainment. No electricity and the expensive batteries were saved for the few occasions we listened to the radio.
After my father 'proved up' on his land and had the deed in his hand we moved back to Louisiana were my cousin's grandfather had a library in his home that was better than the public library.
I had free access to all of those tomes. I read everything Mark Twain ever wrote, including his notes that some University in California now possesses. All of the Tom Sawyer stories, Tom Sawyer Detective, Tom Sawyer Abroad, The Story of Adam and Eve, my favorite short story of his The Invalid's Tale, I can't read that today without breaking down laughing.... Ole Doc's library was an amazing place.
BUT!
Having a Kindle is incredible! I can carry around a whole library and have access to countless volumes. I was looking through my own library the other day and noticed how the pages of favorite books were beginning to yellow and deteriorate with age. Electronic storage may prevent the loss of the next Library of Alexandria.
Oh, what the world lost with that tragic event.
CARRY ON!
Hey! not too many lament the loss of the Great Library in Alexandria. One can only dream what incredible things were housed there. Must have been a fascinating childhood. Would be fun if you would post some stories about that life. I live just a few miles from Virginia City in Nevada where Twain hung out for a few years. He is kind of a local myth/legend. Peace, brother.
Well thanks. Blessings.
I too have had a love affair with books since I was a child. I was introduced to so many heroic figures, ideas of conduct that set the bar for me as I was shaping myself into becoming a man. To this day even the smell of old books is one that brings me peace.
I recently bought a storage unit at auction that had thousands of books. I liquidated most of them, but some I just couldn't bear to part with as they were in my fathers library. So have been slowly shipping them media mail across the country for my move in June. If I ever finally have a set of roots, my dream is to have a huge library filled with that scent of knowledge as the aged paper hints of their tales and secrets.
Thanks for having books. My mom has a lot of books. All my life, people would tell us we had too many books. It is sad when people do not see the value of books.
Ah yes, there is a presence and scent to books isn't there. I think, too, that those who are well read have a way with words, as it appears you do. I think the standard still applies for most books to this day - that standard being character development. A tragic thing that most of our youth are slumming it in smart phones and video games. Not much character building going on there. Well, we shall see what the future brings won't we? Thanks for sharing. Blessings.
Thank you, and likewise. The one ingredient I believe is crucial though is the way one embraces the words in their heart. Some will use the words in an evil way to circumvent others freedom (like lawyers) and steal and others will use them to express kindness and giving and resolve to see things be kept right. And for those dealing from the heart, it is like the mark of Cain that Hesse talked about. It is easily recognizable among those who have it, and fully displayed will strike fear in those who would only have the surface agreements looked at.
Yes, I don't recall how long ago it was that I finally recognized that words are actually energy and have power. They are not just sounds. blessings.
It totally already is weird and quirky! But I don't care: our brains work differently with physical books, and I won't part with my books for the world.
Well, let me go one step deeper: I believe we humans have the ability to literally imbue ourselves or attach ourselves to physical things, like cars and houses and jewelry and books. We attach to them in a metaphysical way, but real nonetheless. Hard to do with an e-book. Blessings.
Very cool. Yes. There is just something more real about a book, rather than just the abstract ideas which they contain, which is what an e-book emphasizes.
I enjoy your thoughts a lot! Blessings your way, too.