Books: a Lifetime of Treasures

I am always surprised and rather saddened when I hear of people who do not read books. Having been an avid book-reader since I learned to read, I find it difficult to imagine what life would be without them. Rather dull and empty, I feel. But as books form a very large part of my life (I’m a writer as well as a reader!) I suppose I’m biased.Yet, I cannot help feeling that anyone’s life could be improved by just a little bit of reading. And I don’t mean gossip magazines or the text your best friend just sent you. I’m talking about the amazing enlightenment, excitement, delight, humour and the whole gamut of emotions to be had from reading a great work of fiction. A colleague in an office once said to me that she never read fiction because she couldn’t see the point of reading something that wasn’t true. What an amazingly sad misunderstanding of the nature of fiction. The stories in fiction may be made up, but any good writer will tell you that a good story is built upon a theme – and that theme is always something that is very true about life. In good fiction, the characters learn things about themselves. They grow as people, and in doing so they face conflicting and difficult situations – sometimes physically dangerous, sometimes emotionally upsetting – but always based on truth, because how else would the reader be able to relate to them? Fiction is, paradoxically, truth. When we read a good work of fiction, we grow and learn along with the characters; we may discover something about ourselves, or about other people; we may draw encouragement from something a character has to go through and overcome; we may be inspired to do something, to be courageous, or loving.Children, in particular, learn so much from books. Let’s take the Harry Potter series. These books are not just about a young magician who goes to magician school and gets into a lot of trouble with his friends and manages to save the day. These books are about courage, friendship, love, and the overcoming of adversity through strength of character, perseverance and honesty. While children are enjoying the stories, these lessons are being learned unconsciously.You may think that The Lord of the Rings was just a fantasy about dwarves and elves and nothing much to do with real life. Think again. Some of Tolkien’s main themes in the book were friendship, comradeship and loyalty. These basic values are interwoven throughout the story – think about the Fellowship of the Ring, Sam’s devoted loyalty to Frodo, the support of Gandalf and the development of the unlikely friendship between an elf and a dwarf. All these are human themes which are actually what help the characters to win against all odds. That’s a strong message about the power of friendship.When you think about the amount of books there are waiting to be read, what an incredible abundance of treasures we have to look into any time we want! Just think, at any time you want, you can be moved, made to laugh, cry or smile, be scared, excited, thrilled, inspired or soothed. And all from the comfort of your own armchair!