Words

"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."
~ C.S.Lewis

I was on Facebook today. Yes; I am that up to date with culture I have a Facebook page, and someone had posted a note on literature and reading. The list had 150 of the worlds best novels and you had to asterisk which ones you had read. I was not tagged in the note so I felt it wrong to copy and paste it to my page but as I ran down the list it became apparent that I am, shall we say, well read. The sadness though, I read all of them or shall I say most, while I was a Lit major in university.

I felt robbed in university when I would start a class and the reading list was given and I knew that I would have to read the 16-20 books in the 16 week semester and I knew that I would be reading for interpretation and papers and not really enjoying the books. For that reason, much of the books that really hit me, I have gone back throughout my life and read again, some, over and over again, like Pride and Prejudice or Watership Down.

I am not an intellectual but words are so important. I had a dream once where in it I was in a world where books weren't allowed. Where reading was forbidden. My heart ached and I was shouting at the top of my lungs to the injustice. A world without words would be a very lost civilization.

So, what have all these words done for me. I can't help but think that the words have opened the world to me. That in reading I've learned more of human nature and the destiny of mankind. I have no special interest in any particular genre. I love Jane Austin's world as equally as the intrigue of Dan Brown's. I have read almost every Newberry Winner and Honor book from it's inception to 2005. Might I suggest that "Around the World in 80 Days" or "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" will give you insight into living and dreaming and maybe understand people and the hopes that take them beyond their own worlds.

I am not a literary snob, nor am I driven by the latest craze, though I admire what Oprah has done for the publishing world and her choices are often demanding. I have tried to teach my children that reading can and will make them better people. And for those who wonder, scriptures are important but not everything. A balance is essential in a world that requires it.

What am I on about?

I delved into CS Lewis a few years back. I had read, a few times, the "Chronicles of Narnia", even reading them aloud to my son. I wanted to understand the man so I read "Mere Christianity" and found in it the story of conversion and finding faith. It came at the most opportune time and encouraged me to find placement for my own beliefs. Yeah, I know, not a Deseret Publication, but it gave me hope in a religion I was struggling with. Now I know, this is my interpretation, and that what I extracted may not have been the same as another but what I did gain was for my understanding and from my experience that I brought to it.

I went through a time when my eyesight wasn't great. My vision had doubled and the words were nearly impossible to read. I used to sit and look at the novels and books at the side of my bed and I have never been as afraid as the thought that these words would be lost to me. In the tests they found the reason and the problem is temporary and comes and goes but in the moments when I thought the words would be lost forever I felt hollow and empty.

As I look now over the thousands of books and novels and words they have all left an imprint on me that helps me to grow in the world I live. I look forward to the many more books, essays, papers and poems that will cross my path and change me to being an even better and more enlightened person.