Thoughts on Books

I have read a lot of books and have pretended to read a lot more. The ones I have read have covered the gambit from Non-fiction History to classic Chrisitian literature. From Russian classics to contemporary fiction. From biographies to the history of salt. And everything in between. I say this to get to my point. I was walking through the house the other day and Oprah was on. She was talking about an upcoming special that she was hosting at Auschwitz. It stemmed from her reading Night by Elie Wiesel. She over and over again stated that this book (and it seems to me every book she chooses for her book club) changed her life dramatically. I began to think, Has any book changed my life?

I could think of only one. Now I must first admit that many books have made me want to change my life but few have had any real impetus. [For reason of argument I will exclude the Holy Bible from this conversation.]

I love the book Night. Love it so much that my copy is worn and tattered and dog-eared. Love it so much that I spent three years teaching it in my junior-level American History class. It was one of the few books that drew the students in and kept their rapt attention. Some wept in class. Others refused to believe that this could actually happen. After all was told it was the single most effective tool I used to teach the Holocaust. It led to great discussions and it led to the students wanting to know more about the topic and searching for more information on their own. Here were students who adamatly protested reading in a History class! Heck, they didn't read in their English class! All that said, Night never changed my life or how I go about my daily existence. An incredible book but not "life-changing".

I love the book A Prayer For Owen Meany. Have read it several times. I don't now keep an armadillo in my home nor have I stopped playing baseball. Haven't cut off a part of my body or moved to Canada. But I love the book and think it has some great lessons and ontological truths. The list goes on and on. C.S. Lewis. Jeff and Michael Sharra. Joy Hakim. Jeffery Archer. PAt Conroy. Tom Clancy. William Faulkner. And on and on and on.

Now we get to the one book that borders on "life-changing" for me...and I use that phrase with great trepidation. The book has actually resonated deeply with me and more than any book outside of the Bible has caused me to actually question why I do things and has caused me to consider going in a different direction at various times. The book is Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I first read it while I was a Sophomore at Baylor University. The professor was a Thoreau scholar and could quote from the book with ease. I don't doubt that she had some influence in my enjoying the book but the style and subject matter won me over quickly. For the un-initiated the non-fiction book is an account of a year the Thoreau spends on Walden pond. He lives by himself and ruminates on society, nature, economy, government, taxes, war, peace, spirituality and man's interconnectedness with others and with the Earth. While I was living in NYC I had the opportunity to visit Walden pond and see the small one-room cabin that Thoreau stayed in during his year. I didn't feel like I was on holy ground or anything near to that but it made it come alive and that visit has added to my enjoyment and understanding. Additionally having a grasp one some of the other writings that Thoreau completed and knowing a decent bit about the historical time in which he lived and wrote has also helped in my enjoyement. Lastly an appreciation for how others have been influenced by the book (including Ghandi and Martin Luther King) has helped to understand the text better. Again, I don't know if my life has been changed by the book--I don't know that my life is now different from what it would have been had I not read the book (and wouldn't that be the definition of "life changing"?)-- but I do know that the book has been "life-influencing". I have included a few quotes from the book as examples, I chose just a few that are most memorable to me, I could have chosen dozens more or in one case, I could have just copied an entire chapter.

>>To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

>>The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked what I thought and then attended to my answer.

>>I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

>>We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success.****

>>Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

>> If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated?

>>Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

>>The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

>>In the long run, men hit only what they aim for. Therefore they had better aim at something high.

>>What does education often do? It makes straight-cut ditch of a free meandering brook.

>>We shall see but a little way if we require to understand what we see.

>>I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of their dreams and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.

>>If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

>>Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!

>>If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. [My wife and most of my friends will wonder if this quote is not the most apt for me considering my propensity toward grandeur and my ADD-like habit of starting a million projects and finishing only a few.]

>>I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls.

>>To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

>>I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. [This is by far my favorite quote and the one that might push this book into the category of "life-influencing". I could have easily clipped the entire chapter and posted it here but this is the essence of his entire book. I have often found myself considering this quote when I begin to get bogged down in the non-essentials of life.]

I hope that this stirs a bit of conversation about books and their influences. If nothing else it allowed me to share a little bit about a book I love and that I think should be mandated reading. Go pick up Walden and let's have a discussion about his ideas. Until then...live deep, cut a wide swath and know the sublimeness off life!