Lawrence Beck
This reminds me of one of my favorite poems, written by one of my favorite poets, Philip Larkin.


A Study of Reading Habits

When getting my nose in a book
Cured most things short of school,
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size.

Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my coat and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.

Don't read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.
2012-10-10

Lalando
I most respectfully have to disagree with your core argument - amusing as I find it.

Books are collections of words, strung into sentences, which frame mental images when read. Books these days are not necessarily made from paper, but grow increasingly diverse in their shape and form.
They have a use, in that they facilitate the transfer of ideas directly between minds - Stephen King has stated that writing is technically an act of Telepathy - in that ideas are transferred from one mind to another, without direct contact between the participants. We have never met, and in all probability we never will - but even so, these words directly transmit concepts between us, allowing us to bridge the several thousand miles separating us.

Words have an uncanny power to bring into existence things not yet conceived of in reality.

However, I fully agree that the power of the book and the words it contains, come into effect only once that book is opened by a reader - suddenly, the world envisioned springs gloriously to life, painting itself upon the mind's eye, of the recipient.

Just my two cents. :)

P.S. This is not meant as a critique, but rather, as an open argument, and I do hope you don't take it ill.
2012-10-08

penfold18
And then it becomes something as is this Ken~Graham.
2012-10-07