On Books
Superpowers or superficial?
Have you been reading lately?
I call myself a seasonal bookworm. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I would not imagine and spend more than 10% of my monthly expenses on books. I doubt I would lay in my designated reading chair to read for more than an hour. My current reading habit is the manifestation of solitude and eagerness to explore within my inner world, a replacement for physical travel that is impossible amid movement control.
What happens when we read
Most people I know believe books are the source of knowledge. I grew up listening to “Go and read books so that you can score in tests and exams”. In this case, the knowledge is “textbook” knowledge where indirectly the parents would want their children to read more, achieve better results in exams, secure a degree followed by a job. After all, parents want children to be prepared and independent in the next stage of their lives.
Other than the textbook and skill-based knowledge, there are books that shed light on how to live. Some of them share the concrete steps of how, whereas others inform us of the reasons and meaning of the lives chosen. I categorize the former self-help and the latter philosophy.
I write this to reflect on how much attention we have spent reading each of these types of books…
