Feature photo: photo and quote by Umberto Eco | © La Republica
Far too many books are published every year, and meanwhile very, very many people think they have to write a book themselves; I don't want to exclude myself from that. But my observation is probably as old as the printing press itself, so that there is always advice on how best to deal with this flood of books. Nice George Macaulay Trevelian stated:
"Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading."
George Macaulay Trevelian, English Social History (1942)
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about this in 1860:
Never read any book that is not a year old, always read well-known books, and always read topics that one enjoys.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, In Praise of Books
Haruki Murakami, which I recently recommended reading here, means however
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood (2000:31)
Ray Bradbury is convinced that books definitely help everyone.
"The things you're looking for ... are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine percent of them is in a book."
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (2012 [1953]: 82)
It is also interesting to see the perspective of Kathy acker, which in the preface of Samuel R Delanys Trouble on Triton (1996 [1976]) wrote:
"Every book, remember, is dead until a reader activates it by reading. Every time that you read you are walking among the dead, and, if you are listening, you might just hear prophecies. Aeneas did. Odysseus did. ..."
Kathy acker
Regardless of which books you read now, thinks Romain Rollandthat you actually never read the book itself, but rather yourself.
"No one ever reads a book. He reads himself through books, either to discover or to control himself. And the most objective books are the most deceptive. The greatest book is not the one whose message engraves itself on the brain, as a telegraphic message engraves itself on the ticker-tape, but the one whose vital impact opens up other viewpoints, and from writer to reader spreads the fire that is fed by the various essences, until it becomes a vast conflagration leaping from forest to forest."
Romain Rolland, Journey Within (2004 [1947]: 19f)
Diego Urbina recommends reading books based on his own and very profound experience as an astronaut. He is convinced that these are a good tool for managing one's own existence.
"In the end, what you are doing, it's really cold, really repetitive. You need to stay in touch with your humanity. Books are a really good tool for that.”
Diego Urbina, in The New Yorker (June 28, 2013, 520 days of solitude)
Also viewed very matter-of-factly Eldred D Jones the real purpose of books.
"Legends die hard in the popular minds, while facts tend to languish in books."
Eldred D Jones, quoted in John Reader, Africa – A Biography of the Continent (1997: 328)
And Francis Bacon gave advice on the best way to read books.
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."
Francis Bacon, Essays (1625, Of Studies)
And he goes on
"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider."
Francis Bacon, Essays (1625, Of Studies)
My own experience leads me to say that you should read a good book at least three times in your life. I recommend that you pick up a good book for the first time when you're young, then for a second time when you're in the middle of life, and finally when you're in the last phase of your life. Because good books accompany a person throughout life, provided that one also reads them.
In order to clarify my assertion somewhat, I will use an example from music and recommend first recording the Goldberg Variations by Glenn gould from 1955 and finally the one from 1981. Johann Sebastian Bach's grades have not changed over the years, only Gould's perspective - and this can be heard loud and clear!
Finally, I would like to leave again Umberto Eco to have their say, which can already be seen in the article above.
"If you don't read, you have lived a life at 70, if you read, you will have experienced 5000 years."
Umberto Eco, in an interview with la Repubblica
"From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it."
This statement is commonly attributed to Groucho Marx.
