Books and Mind Keeping

After having such a title, I just want to let you know that I just picked this word ‘Mind Keeping’ to give a fancy name to my write up here. And this is all about books , books and more books

 Suggest me some good books dear friends…  (wait !I am not asking you to suggest here.. but you can post names of any interesting books in the comments section though)

This was my Facebook status few months ago.. Many people suggested me few books…  but one particular reply nailed me to think of something else…

“You fool! Why do you want to read a book? Just read life!”

And another reply supporting that comment is “Yes! He is absolutely right!!”

So I thought, book reading is always considered a good Hobby… And If I am bored or want to do something.. I can just open a book and read it.. but how am I supposed to read life at my leisure..?

I asked them so, I got a reply “Reading in itself is a boring process, so when you are bored, you read a book that will make you still bored” this is a casual comment.. But set me up for thinking..

Is reading really such a boring thing? The answer for me is a big NO… I would come to this point later.. and I have another message.. rather than a comment on my status.. That again nailed me… and made me wonder.. is this kind of thinking  good..

“Why do you want to show off yourself that you read books?”

I actually didn’t understand it..

“What?” is my answer..

Asking someone to suggest a book on FB is a show off thing? I was thinking.. Putting up your most handsome pics up there is not a show off… but asking someone to suggest a book for reading is a show off..  wow.. Awesome!!!!

“It is not show off.. if it so.. no one would reply my request”

“They are trying to show off too… This is all self-marketing”

Good .. logical.. and neat.. Let us consider this person is very true.. but is it bad showing off that you read books? Or will it have any bad influence on anyone who gets my updates?

Is it as bad as spreading hate messages? Is it as bad as bullying someone on FB or is it as bad as killing someone else’s interest in doing something just by telling them that it is a show off? I don’t know..

So leaving my personal experiences there..

I would want to discuss why books are important.. as anything has good and bad in itself.. books also has good and bad in it.. but the overall good done by books cannot be dominated by its teensy bad influences.

First thing we do after we get up , if we don’t have books or any medium of recording our experiences, is to grab a pair of stones.. and hit them against each other in order to generate fire.. Maybe not that too.. we will be doing something even primitive. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors no matter how good we are at technology, today.  Sure, your life teaches you some lessons.. But you cannot learn that all by yourself and from your own life. You learn from your surroundings,from your friends and their lives and from every one… For some the thirst and search for things and experiences ends with their own.. for some they seek new knowledge every day. How do you get that from? Books obviously, the recordings of others experiences, thoughts.Every medium of entertainment.. every means of communication has to be written… to pass your experience to others. To pass your feelings to others.. Barring vocal communication..

You dance for a super song right? The notes of that song.. notes related to every single instrument is jotted down first and recorded from that.

You listen to a vocal artist .. he or she should write down the lyrics first.

Watching a movie?  The script has to written first.

So there is no shame in reading books, no shame in loving them, no shame in writing books..

All the shame related to books is in our hearts… why are we so content in being ignorant? Ignorance is a bliss, only in few chosen circumstances…

Why are we so obsessed with being extremely normal…  we draw a narrow lane, that will just fit us in…and want to raise in that lane… how far can you grow.. when your close the lid of a jar in which you kept your thoughts so tightly ?

P.S: No offense intended!