I'd like all of you to raise your hand if you have read a book. You may be wondering what I am doing, but I wanted to show you something. I wanted to show you how many people have read books. These people don?t always fit into one category. They may be young, they may be old, rich, poor, and even education levels differ. Books range in topics from sports to science fiction to western. At one point or another in our lives, we were probably captivated by the words or picture on the sleek pages. If that is the case for you, then you, my friend have experienced the immense power of books. You all know that books can give hope to a hopeless soul, and they can give one wisdom and intelligence.
Maybe you have been feeling down, and in your angry state, for some reason or another decided to pick up a book. While tearing through the pages, you may have seen a glimmer of hope. Gary Paulsen, the well published author shared an experience when books gave him hope. He was a young kid, 10 years old, and just transferred from the Philippines to a public school in Washington D.C., He dropped his coat off in the in-room coat room, and was so frightened that he simply could not move. The teacher noticed this and went back into the room with him. She brought a book with a horse on the cover and let him turn the pages. This enabled him to interact with the book. When the teacher felt he was ready, she asked him if he wanted to come out. He agreed, and she held is hand as he was led into the classroom, to his seat. Paulsen?s story was just one of many stories of how books instilled hope in someone. Books gave Paulsen an escape from his drunken, screaming parents, gave him a place where he could be free from school bullies. Whether a book makes you go from a rage, to just a little sad, or from sad to happy, books can give one person hope.
Books can do more than provide hope. Books, as you would expect, can give someone intelligence and wisdom. While, Paulsen was a young thirteen year old living in the a Minnesota town, he was selling newspapers to drunks, trying to scrounge up some extra cash to buy nicer clothes to fit in with the popular kids in school.
When you read, especially fiction, you experience a broad sweep of human life. You gain access to the thoughts of others, look at history through another person’s eyes and learn from their mistakes, something that you otherwise would not be able to experience.
In “The Lonely, Good Company of Books,” by Richard Rodriguez, you learn that Rodriguez had read hundreds of books before he was a teenager, but never truly understood what he was reading. His parents never encouraged him to read and thought the only time you needed to read, was for work. Since his parents never encouraged Rodriguez to read it effected how he perceived books.
In a world dominated by technology, reading novels has become dull. Instead of immersing into books, we choose to listen to Justin Bieber’s new songs and to scroll through Instagram posts. We have come to completely neglect the simple pleasures of flipping through pages and getting to finally finish a story. Sherman Alexie and Stephan King’s essays attempt to revive this interest in books that has long been lost. They remind us of the important role that reading plays in our daily lives. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” for instance, demonstrates how being literate saved the narrator from the oppressive nature of society. The author explains that even though he was capable of reading complex books at an astonishingly young
I began to read not out of entertainment but out of curiosity, for in each new book I discovered an element of real life. It is possible that I will learn more about society through literature than I ever will through personal experience. Having lived a safe, relatively sheltered life for only seventeen years, I don’t have much to offer in regards to worldly wisdom. Reading has opened doors to situations I will never encounter myself, giving me a better understanding of others and their situations. Through books, I’ve escaped from slavery, been tried for murder, and lived through the Cambodian genocide. I’ve been an immigrant, permanently disabled, and faced World War II death camps. Without books, I would be a significantly more close-minded person. My perception of the world has been more significantly impacted by the experiences I've gained through literature than those I've gained
Richard Wright, in his essay “Discovering Books,” explains how reading books changed his outlook on life and eventually his life itself. The first book that widened his horizons was an overtly controversial book by H. L. Mencken. I have a story not so dissimilar from his.
Prior to reading Thirteen Reasons Why, I felt that no one understood me. I often find myself engulfed in books, but only if I can connect them to my life. Often books can tug your emotions and hook onto you. Books have impacted my life by helping me realize that I am not alone in my situations. Books used to be my decampment from the world when I felt that I was the only one enduring my dilemmas. When reading Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, it was effortless for me to attach myself to the book, greatly impacting my life by changing my previous viewpoint about no one grasping what I went through.
contain. These books help readers affectively—giving them pleasurable experiences with reading and boosting their self-concept; these books help readers culturally and
Reading a book is in many ways the same as exercising the muscles in your arm, as you are feeding your brain new information and ideas of life. Life is short and I believe that you should always be positive and do the things that you want without people telling you that you are wrong. The following Novels have taught me various aspects, which I have and still am using to make my life a memorable one as well as a positive one.
When people read books, they often get into them and some can even change their views on life. Certain books can have assertainable stories that are strongly appealing to others mentality. If a person is going through a problematic period and they read a book where the main character is in a predicament that is similar, that reader might connect to that book/literary piece and it may transform their views on life and the world around them. With the literature that I have read this semester, there were times where they made me think about life and how it truly is. Some of them even made be see the world and society differently. The two literary pieces that we read this semester that changed my observation of the world was William Goldings book, the Lord of the Flies, and Henrik Ibsens playwrite, A Doll’s House.
My earliest memories can be found at the hands of paperback novels. Books were my escape from the world around me. The thrill of being able to leave behind the world and it’s baggage and enter another that books provided captivated me, and left an impact on me. The emotion I experienced solely from taking a small step into another person’s story was unlike any I had felt before. I desperately wanted others to feel what I had felt, and love whatever I had become entranced by with the same passion as I did.
A multiplicity of books changed my life, connecting me with minds from many nations and ages, making me a citizen of the world and the universe, instead of a person bound by the horizons of a village and the flickering light of the living room TV.
In the article “The Power of Story”, stories are not just a book to read, stories become a defense mechanism and comfort zone for children. Children who have been victims of an physical and or emotionally abusive situation can be strongly affected by stories. Researchers have found that reading a book that is similar to the child’s situation with an alternative ending have had uplifting results, with children. Jean and John Pardeck from the The Power of Story article, point out how “literature provides models of how to understand and handle dilemmas and real life situations.” This description of the power through stories can be better describe as Bibliotherapy. This type of therapy helps human beings with self healing and self understanding through literature and films.
My dad taught me that books could be my teachers, my mom taught me that our backyard could be my classroom, and my sister showed me that you could bring books into the swimming pool. I did not know it when I would spend hours in the pool reading a book that my parents weren’t encouraging it in vain, but my family life, for good reason, was centered on books. We were the planets orbiting around one sun that was the bookshelf. Little did I know that books would be the catalyst to academic success in my early life, and I owe it all to my family. Although a life with a book in your nose might seem boring, I was never bored. Living through the characters vicariously, I explored Narnia with Lucy, attended Hogwarts with Harry, and rode dragons with Eragon. Of course
Ever since I was a child, I've never liked reading. Every time I was told to read, I would just sleep or do something else instead. In "A Love Affair with Books" by Bernadete Piassa tells a story about her passion for reading books. Piassa demonstrates how reading books has influenced her life. Reading her story has given me a different perspective on books. It has showed me that not only are they words written on paper, they are also feelings and expressions.
I do not remember any time in my life, when I was not aware of books. My earliest memory is of my uncle telling me a story about a wicked dragon, which steals a treasure, and the group of heroes, who go to confront him in battle. He used to tell me this story in sequels, a small amount every week, so by the time next week came up, I would be totally waiting in anticipation. It was when I started reading myself, that I realized that he had been retelling Tolkien's "The Hobbit". To this day "The Hobbit" is one of my favorite books, I read it to bring back memories of my child hood, when I’m depressed, or when I plain don’t have anything else to read.