Reading

to read

to look at words or symbols

and understand what they mean

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/read

I don’t know nor can I tell you, what you feel when you’re reading. But in todays post I’d like to tell you, what I feel.

I feel the book. I feel every letter of it.

And that’s why I don’t read just any and every book that happens to fall in my hands. Because not every letter, that’s forming a word, is meant to be felt by me. Not all words are good words. Not all bad words trigger bad feelings. But some do.

I do not only feel, I smell the book, too.

I smell the printing. I imagine the heaviness of the printer pressing down on the light and delicate paper sheets -paper leaves- and painting their innocence with heavy, black ink, to write down, word for word, new worlds.

I want the book. I not only want to read it, I want to be it. I want its knowledge in its entirety. I want to make it my book and I’m doing so by understanding its purpose and feeling the authors emotions.

Ok. I’d like to present to you, my favorite quotes about books and what meaning I read in them.

A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.

–Neil Gaiman

for me this is as simple a statement as it can be. books are describing either worlds, that only exist on the pages and in the authors mind, or are written about a certain segment of time and history that happened on earth; either way: they are dreams and/or anecdotes of life you can hold in your hands.

Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.

–Vera Nazarian

for me books are knowledge. and I like to learn from or study with books. „to gain knowledge“ is something I associate with light, because after you found out something new, you often feel enlightened. you can finally see something clearly, of which’ existence  you didn’t even know before reading a certain book. Nazarians „somewhere in the world“ is for me „somewhere in the world“ of my mind and the opening of a door is the process of learning something new, while the entrance of the „light“ is the final understanding.

Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book.

–Author Unknown

this can have two intentions for me:

1. it can be connected with the first quote. so to say that you can live the life described in the books you read. you can dream yourself into them. there are millions of books out there, so you could have as many lives as you can read books.
2. it can mean something more serious. imagine someone saying „I have only this one life, there’s not much to change about it.“ in the undertone of this phrase lies „I have/had no choice.“ thinking about what I’ve described about books, meaning knowledge for me, this quote gains the following meaning for me:

if you feel you can not change your (way of) life, then you may have forgotten about finding help through reading books. if you’d start reading, you’d learn and maybe you’ll gain another perspective on things and suddenly you’ll know how to change your path.

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

–Haruki Murakami

for me this quote does not require a lot of interpretation or explanation. but still this post is about, what these quotes mean to me, so I’ll write somethings about it anyway:

this quote is a powerful one. for me it triggers thoughts about manipulation, deception and censorship. why? because it makes me think about the people who don’t have the freedom to read whatever they want or who simply not have any access to certain books. in that way, it means that a system can make you think and feel only one way, by making everyone read only certain kinds of books. why could they make people feel the same way?, you might ask. well, because books can bring forth very strong emotions/feelings in us. having thought about all this, Murakamis quote sounds like an appeal to those, who are free to read and think and write; to read and think and write what they want to and what they think is right and not what the system wants them to think or believe or read or write or feel. use the power that you have, and make it a strong one. 

Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood.

–John Green

for me, only a book, of which I’ve learned something, is a good book, a „great book“ to quote John Green. by this I don’t mean it has to teach me how to solve a complex mathematical problem, but it has to challenge me in some way. it has to show me something new, a new perspective, a new kind of character … therefore it has to make me understand something. only after that happened I’ll call it a „great book“. and: the best books are the ones that „help you feel understood“ while reading. those are „great books“ because you can relate to them and that’s what’s making them such a good read.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

–Oscar Wilde

simple: no one likes to be criticized.

It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.

–C.S. Lewis

this is something I usually do. it’s a habit I highly recommend, if you’re as lucky as I am and have already found THE greatest book ever, for inspiring yourself. reading your favorite book(s) again on a regular schedule(this does not have to be every week, NO! but a schedule that appeals to you. I read mine every three months or as a „breather“ in between another book.) gives you a great opportunity to reflect to the „good old“ inspirations you got out of it the first time you read it and it will make sure that you didn’t miss anything important. often enough what’s important to you will change so what you feel to be important in your favorite book will adapt to these changes in yourself.

It can also help you to understand difficult reads. I’ll come to that in a second.

Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out.

–J.K. Rowling

I really like this quote, because it’s a very simple explanation to, „why some people just don’t see it?“ you know when you read a classic at school or on your own and you try to talk about it with someone in your class or a person who also read it. sometimes the responses are just not at all what you’ve expected, right? that might be because your significant other, may have not understood the book. and I’m not talking about, having it understood different than you did, but simply about technics. for example: you can’t expect a 3rd grader to understand War&Peace nor can you expect a person, who’s never read any kind of play before, to understand a Shakespearian drama. to certain books, there’s the need of reading other books before, tackling the desired read. the more direct interpretation of Rowlings quote is: reading is not for dummies! or even worse: reading is for smart people! but I like to think that reading can make you smart! therefore I think Miss Rowling points out the fact that you are a fool if you expect to be a genius after reading a high-praised novel, without putting any effort in understanding it. because that’s not going to happen… to gain knowledge from books, you will always have to process their meanings and in most cases do some research. 

What’s a „breather“? And why can it help to understand more difficult books?

Struggling with a certain book and putting it a side to read something more simple or even better: to re-read an old favorite(‚cause those are usually the most easy ones on your bookshelf), is what I call a „breather“. 

Every bookworm has come across this phenomenon at least once: „ah this book is just no fun anymore! it’s too difficult!“

*frustratedly frowning at the cover*

Hold on, there’s a cure:

Sometimes you choose a more challenging book to be your new read. That’s a good thing! Congratulations, you’ll surely learn something from it! But from time to time, this does not at all end in a success but in a frustrating move to your bookshelf and finding a hidden space for this „problematic read“. Stop! Don’t give up now! What would be the point of reading something challenging if you’d give up after discovering the challenge? Right, there’d be no point. 

To-do-list when long-term frustrated with a book:

1. choose a new setting: new reading space, new fancy bookmark, new beverage(maybe this is not a book for tea but for coke?), etc. just start a little over. This gives your mind a new start-up mode and sometimes this helps to get over the hurdles.

1. Didn’t work? Well seams to be a more complex story. Don’t worry. Here comes the „breather“. Put the frustrating book a side, and I don’t mean your bookshelf! Put it on your desk as though you’ve just finished a chapter. Now for the next two weeks, you’ll just read something easy. I recommend re-reading an old favorite, because if you’ll get to a „reading-block“ again, you’ll know exactly were you left the story, where as reading a new easy book as an in-between, as a „breather“, will only get you more frustrated because you’ll sure have lost track, while tackling the difficult book again. Only a recommendation…a tip.   :-) After having browsing through your „breather“ for two weeks, it’s time to pick up the challenge again: go back one chapter and try again. In most cases this strategy has helped me to tackle my „reading-block“. If symptoms recur just repeat treatment.
2. If 1.&2. didn’t help, you might consider to do some research. Maybe there’s something that’s essential to understand/know before reading this book and you just didn’t know? This is often the case for plays and classics by the way. Here your English/Literature teacher might help. Ask him/her if you’ve missed something important while reading or the tough question: if you’re maybe not ready yet to read this kind of book? AND: If there are any recommendations for your age/your point of knowledge/understanding etc.?

That’s it for today! Always remember: Books open doors to knowledge. They help you understand and re-think the important things in your life or in life in general! And most important: Reading is a lot of fun! So maybe read an e-book if you really can’t separate your eyes from that laptop/phone screen? You won’t regret it!

XOXO Avria

PS: the only quote in this post, that I didn't explain, is the picture one. This is my number one quote of all times. By doing an exchange year I've truly tried to live by it.