Read A Book

As I sit in my hotel room here in Houston, Texas on the last day of the National Conference of Teachers of English (NCTE), I am reminded that there are many people out there that believe in the power of reading and more importantly that they read books.  There are some people that make major life decisions based on some evidence found in articles and blogs.  That to me is disturbing.  We must read books. 

A movie was created this year from a book that I had my students read.  My students all believe that the book was better.  Of course the book is better.  It has more detail and it took more time to create than the movie that was based on it.  Writing a book takes time.  I should know because I’ve done it.  I wrote my book, Overcoming Church, because an article was not big enough to contain the information of what it took for me to overcome the hurt that the church dumped on me. I tried to make it an article and a blog post.  It was too big.  In my book, I give the advice to lay a strong foundation and take time on your own to read the Bible.  You will discover many accounts, knowledge, and wisdom pieces that you may have never known existed.  I know I do every time I read it. 

A book comes together after months, and sometimes years of research and work, even novels that are based on topics that the author needs to research. An article takes less time.  In fact, even how we punctuate the title determines how long it takes to create it.  If it is a book, movie, album, or a television series the title gets written in Italics or underlined if handwritten.  If the title is an article, blog, poem, or song, it gets “quotation marks” because it takes less time to create.  Some grammar nerd figured that out.  I would say that to me this indicates that books are more powerful than articles.  Books contain not only more information, but also contain more power. 

If you want power and knowledge, read many books. I would encourage people to read the Bible and read it many times.  A friend once told me that he, as an atheist, knew more about the Bible than some of his Christian friends.  That’s disheartening and disturbing.  So, let’s walk away from our computers, put down our phones, and pick up a book.  A book will open your mind to many more adventures, along with power and knowledge.  Imagine the arguments we could stop just by reading books.   “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  Psalm 119:105