World Book and Copyright Day April 23

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Biography Of myOutstanding K ind love of more than four decades

Balayogi- [email protected]

A special write up for WORLD BOOK and COPYRIGHT DAY 23rd April 2013

Life is a constant process of learning or to be more precise unfolding the mystery

as to who we are? What is our role in the universe? What are the other species

and things that exist and function in the universe? What is their role? How they

exist? What is our interaction and level of interdependence with everything

around us? Such unending questions and enquiries that seek answers and the

answers that unravel the mysteries are all found in a place. So let us barge into

our omniscient kingdom.

Fortunately all our senses, sensitivities and sensibilities are immensely powerful

and infinitely potential to perceive many things. However, ironically and

unfortunately they are also limited because of their physical frame i.e. we

cannot smell a beautiful rose a few kilometres away nor taste a food in a far

away land. It is in unravelling these beauties beyond the geographical

constraints and revealing the splendours beyond the confines of psychological,

ideological, cultural, social and religious conditionings, by making the mind and

soul to help overcome the limitations of the physic, and unleash the potential of

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our senses that books play a significant role and make us realize that we are

essentially a triad of body, mind and soul each manifesting in different ways and

in varying degrees within the same individual.

When we say book, visually it brings to mind only the printed version, the onethat has no commercial breaks and uses no batteries. But we must include any

or all medium of dissemination of ideas, thoughts, opinions, stories,

philosophies, facts, information, illustrations, pictures, imaginations etc either in

oral form or written form starting from the ancient stone engraved scripts to

palm leaf manuscripts to latest electronic texts. [We can exclude audio visual

media because that is different genre altogether]

Looked from this perspective, they were the first means of wider communicationnetwork and probably one thing that has contributed to the advancement human

species and better understanding among human species. It is through exchange

and sharing of ideas and information human race has learned faster and better

than other species. It was perhaps the first best tool which helped human being

to unite by breaking the barriers of closed cultural group, boundaries of political

geography, fetters of different faiths etc by foraying into different forms of

social set ups and by helping human intellect immensely to appreciate lifeenhancing and soul enlightening ideas and ideologies through communication.

As breathing is the most vital connectivity between our self and the outer world

for our physical life, so too are reading and listening for our mental and spiritual

life. That‘s why they are known as the medicine for the soul. Books are the first,

greatest and most useful discovery of human race and the best bridge

connecting three major stations of chronology i.e. past, present and future. Greg

Weisman writes on this aspect, ―The written word is all that stands betweenmemory and oblivion. Without books as our anchors, we are cast adrift, neither

teaching nor learning. They are windows on the past, mirrors on the present,

and prisms reflected all possible futures. Books are lighthouses erected on the

dark sea of time.‖

This whole write up will be spiced up with many quotes because I, feel the same

way the great author Montaigne used to say , ― I quote others only the better to

express myself‖.



Books are the most valuable wealth that humanity has inherited on earth. They

are the greatest source of inspiration and support in solitude.

What books have done and can do? In short initially all barriers of outer world

are knocked off by them and they bring us out of our kainotophobia [fear of change] by beautifully orienting our perceptions in a kind and subtle way. They

act as beacon to our understanding of the outer world and occupy as the key to

unlock many mysteries. They help us befriend outer world and acted as our ka

[vital life force]. They bore into our inner self and became our kernel. They

become our companions and outpour knowledge to us. They beckon our

outstretched intellect with knowledge to sharpen it. By the way our outlook is

kindled, the two ‗oo‘ s in the word book probably indicate the two eyes [as

Stefanos Livos calls them] that either in a way see a new world or the world in a

new way, they are thus the best outlook- changing omnipresent kindlers.

They absorb our attention aesthetically and artistically and act as an anodyne

absolving our agitation and anger; they take us into the greatest adventures

without any physical danger; they accelerate our ambitions and achievements.

They act as bridge to understand life from within and from outside; they form

the basis for propagation and sustenance of religions, isms, cults, philosophies,

political and economic ideologies, revolutions etc. Can we imagine a religion

without its scripture? Can we imagine a philosopher without his printed works? It

was the writings of a Voltaire or a Marx that have created revolutions; the

printed speeches of Matin Luther King or writing of Mahatma Gandhi that

changed the shape of history; it is the recording of scientific discoveries of a

Darwin or Einstein that have served science. The best source to know the story

of human development and progress of civilization is through books, as JamesRussell Lowell writes, ―Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen

from one to another mind.‖ With the advent of internet books are available aplenty and at the click of the

mouse. They act as mirrors, as psychiatrists, as preachers, as philosophers, as

explorers, as teachers, as scientists, as spiritual teachers etc

Books break or bind blind beliefs and bring in a sceptical self inquiry or an

institution.



They can charge our life with new meanings and change our lives meaningful,

especially, by unpacking before us the wisdom of many lives i.e. the wisdom of

the ages in a few pages; by showing us the experiences of many lives and

gradually make us enjoy the benefit in a single life by providing the happiness of

living many lives. Arlaina Tibensky nicely puts it as, ―Reading makes me feel like

I've lived a thousand lives in addition to my own.‖ And Donalyn Miller too

observes, ―Reading changes your life. Reading unlocks worlds unknown or

forgotten, taking travelers around the world and through time. Reading helps

you escape the confines of school and pursue your own education. Through

characters – the saints and the sinners, real or imagined – reading shows you

how to be a better human being.‖

They have the capacity to rewind or fast forward our age and perception.

They can challenge and even change our convictions and convert our cowardice

into courage; they comfort us; carry us through difficult times; they caress and

cut through our consciousness.

They create our character and characterize our creations and cater to our

creativity; they carry on to colour our experience and curl up in our own cosy

cocoon or carry us to contour- less, corner- less carefree canvass of continuing

creation irrespective of whether it be cut by the callow censors or crowned and

certified by the crowd; even copyrights cannot curtail the clandestine

relationship between the author and the reader ;they challenge our conformed

opinions, bring clarity to convictions, create cutting edge choices and help us to

change for the better; they offer a buffet of choices to relish life. As Nora Ephron

says, ―Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I‘ve accomplished

something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes mesmarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the

unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading

is escape, and the opposite of escape; it‘s a way to make contact with reality

after a day of making things up, and it‘s a way of making contact with someone

else‘s imagination after a day that‘s all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is

bliss.‖

Divine forces may have sculpted all creations but human beings have scriptedcreations and created scriptures whose impact is so powerful that even all the



infinite Gods and their teachings have been made known to larger part of

humanity only through printed scriptures. In many aspects books are the atlas

of life and map for living.

Deep thoughts, dear descriptions, dainty emotions, delightful poetry anddesigns, even divinity etc, all have been rendered down the ages in delicate and

delicious manner by this most powerful medium called words and books using

merely a few alphabets and punctuations marks. This medium has outsmarted

and outwitted all other mediums of interaction and communication be it music,

painting or film. Very often the words in the form of lyrics, poetry, idea, thought,

vision, story, history, recorded data etc supply the material for other art forms.

The credit goes to literature as it has achieved extraordinary things as Boris

Pasternak says, ―Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary

about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something

extraordinary.‖

This is because the words in a book are a combination of emotional, intellectual

and spiritual activity all rolled into one, sometimes very aesthetic and appealing

as well, and therefore the words get etched in our heart, head, and the soul. The

beauty is they outlive their authors and readers forever. Reading books is notonly one of the pleasantest journeys but destination and at times determines the

very destiny of not only an individual but a whole society or a nation or the

whole of humanity. Henry David Thoreau puts it more powerfully in his

wonderful book Walden, ―A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something

at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It

is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language,

and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; -- not be

represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life

itself.‖ Or as Caroline Gordon says, ―A well-composed book is a magic carpet on

which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way.‖

They can define, refine and redefine us and the world around us.

They drive us in and out of details; they delve deeper into our dormant self;

they divert us from despair; some books are doors to other worlds, to other

characters, to other ideas, to another‘s consciousness and some are doors to



heaven. Vera Nazarian writes, ―Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in

the world a door opens to allow in more light.‖

They educate, excite, entertain, enlighten, engage and enlarge the mind,

expand the range of our experiences as Anthony Burgess says, "The greatest giftis the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives

you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind."

They enlarge our outlook, extend the extent of our understanding and render

exquisite our expressions; they express not only the thoughts, ideas and voices

of the author but a whole generation.

They expose us to the inevitable facts and facets of life namely dawning the

dainty dimension of vast varieties, possibilities and confusing complexities and

enlarge our understanding.

They are f abulous food for the brain, faithful friends for the heart and fulfilling

functionaries for the soul; they fulfil our need for instant freedom and freely fulfil

our psychological needs, and they do all these in privacy.

They can be fictional or factual or foraying into obscure sciences or forgone

civilization, whatever they do they are fantastic, focused and firm fulcrum of

fresh ideas and fine thoughts.

All great beliefs, discoveries, ideas, philosophies, religious edicts, revolutions,

social and political forms etc have emerged, supported and survived only

through powerful speeches and the written records.

Parents, teachers, relatives, neighbours, friends, colleagues, employees,

business houses, offices, governments, religious institutions etc each andeveryone must start giving books as gift.

On many occasions like birthday parties, marriages, anniversaries etc start

gifting books. This is written with no publisher or author in mind.

Many books make us humble and lead to honest appraisal of ourselves in terms

of what we know, what we do not know and the necessity to learn more and

more rather than bask in the presumptive world of our own limited scholarship;

most great books are the holographic representations of the universe and



universal self each manifesting part of the perception of life as a whole and each

part equally capable of manifesting the whole perception of the totality of life.

When we read such books we feel that we have perceived the ultimate and

everything but then we keep reading so many similar books each throwing light

on some splendid aspect of the universal self in a new and spectacular way

[speckle pattern of the hologram]. That‘s why there are so many books

unravelling the great mysteries of the ultimate single reality each in their unique

version, voice and vocabulary, namely the various spiritual scriptures, as W.E.

Channing puts it, ―God be thanked for books! they are the voices of the distant

and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.‖ Many books

that help us to lead life in a better way in specific contexts, the many self-help

books; books which help us to delve deeper with a open mind into whatconstitutes reality, probing with unbiased reason and un fettered analysis, the

various books on philosophy; books which help us to understand specific

concepts of ultimate reality, the many religious scriptures. That’s why the

more books we get in our life the more life we get from the books. No

wonder that Homer said; “tout aboutit en un livre,” meaning “everything ends up in

a book ”. And Thomas Carlyle too mentions ―All that mankind has done, thought,

gained, or been; it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.‖ Similar sentiments are echoed by Barbara W.Tuchman too, ―Books are

the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb,

science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the

development of civilization would have been impossible. They are engines of

change (as the poet said), windows on the world and lighthouses erected in the

sea of time. They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures

of the mind. Books are humanity in print.‖ Hermann Hesse expresses stronger

sentiments, ―Without words, without writing and without books there would be

no history, there could be no concept of humanity.‖

They help and heal our hurt heart; they heap histories and help us understand

the past. As Charles kingsley says, ―There is nothing more wonderful than a

book. It may be a message to us from the dead, from human souls we never

saw who lived perhaps thousands of miles away, and yet these little sheets of

paper speak to us, arouse us, teach us, open our hearts and in turn open their



hearts to us like brothers. Without books, God is silent, justice dormant,

philosophy lame.‖

They become intimate like irresistible lovers, initiate a relationship with our

heart and mind and sometimes with our soul too; immerse us with intensetotality and total intensity into them; inject ideas, influence, intoxicate, instigate,

inform, improve, imbue us with importance and what is important, and impact in

many more ways. They help us to interact with many lives, both those who have

lived in flesh and blood and left their imprints and the imagined characters and

offer us the luxury of choosing from a wide range of characters to follow. This

aspect is well laid down by Amal El-Mohtar , ―Coleridge wrote a poem called ‗The

Eolian Harp,‘ in which he explored the notion of music slumbering on its

instrument. It's a gorgeous poem! It moves through thoughts and moods of the

soul as if we're all but harps waiting for a breeze to pass through us to animate

us. I feel the same way about art: that it is something that on many levels

colonises you, gets inside you and changes you from the inside out. I find that

happens with books, too. After I‘ve read a book, for a couple of days afterwards

I think in the patterns of the book‘s writing, because the act of reading is an act

of organising your own thought process. If you are reading someone else‘s

writing, you have to organise your perception along someone else‘s structure. So

if I read a book by Terry Pratchett, a few days later there is still a little Terry

Pratchettness to my thoughts. When I read something by Catherynne Valente,

for quite a few days there is a kind of ‗jewelled‘ quality to my thoughts. To read

a book is to let someone else reach inside me and reorganise me. As a writer, I

find it very difficult to start writing immediately after having read another

writer's book. I have to digest it first, and let the influence pass…‖

They join us jubilantly with overall life. We can survive without books but we

cannot live without them; books do both i.e. analyse in detail and synthesize

with diligence and hence, they lead to syncretism in ideology and in short they

are symbiotic. Julian Barnes writes in ‗A Life with Books‘, ―The American writer

and dilettante Logan Pearsall Smith once said: 'Some people think that life is the

thing; but I prefer reading.' When I first came across this, I thought it witty;

now I find it—as I do many aphorisms—a slick untruth. Life and reading are notseparate activities. The distinction is false (as it is when Yeats imagines a choice



between 'perfection of the life, or of the work'). When you read a great book,

you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial

escape—into different countries, mores, speech patterns—but what you are

essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life's subtleties, paradoxes,

joys, pains and truths. Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic. And for

this serious task of imaginative discovery and self-discovery, there is and

remains one perfect symbol: the printed book.‖ And Daniel Pennac too

writes, ―We human being build houses because we`re alive but we write books

because we` re mortal. We live in groups because we`re sociable but we read

because we know we`re alone. Reading offers a kind of companionship that

takes no one`s place but that no one can replace either. It offers no definitive

explanation of our destiny but links us inextricably to life. Its tiny secret linksremind us of how paradoxically happy we are to be alive while illuminating how

tragically absurd life is.‖

To know ourselves better we must first close ourselves with thought provoking

books and then lose ourselves in them. Perhaps Peter Ackyord echoes similar

sentiments, ―And when I was young, did I ever tell you, I always wanted to get

inside a book and never come out again? I loved reading so much I wanted to be

a part of it, and there were some books I could have stayed in forever.‖

They are livelihood for some, luxury for some, learning tools for some as

Abraham Lincoln said ―All I have learned, I learned from books‖ , love affairs for

some and life itself for some.

Those who are contented with their life read books to relax, those who not

contented with their life replenish their life with books and those who are notcontented with one life but want to live many lives can experience that by living

through the lives of different characters in books and through different ideas and

suggestions of various authors reincarnating anew every time they read a new

book, for everything reincarnates in books. Gary Shteyngart writes about this

effect of reading, ―Reading is entering into the consciousness of another human

being.‖ And C.S. Lewis too writes, ―Literary experience heals the wound, without

undermining the privilege, of individuality... in reading great literature I become

a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I



see with a myriad of eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in

moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself

than when I do.‖ It is because genius lives in books as William Ellery Channing

writes, ―Reading is the royal road to intellectual eminence...Truly good books are

more than mines to those who can understand them. They are the breathings of

the great souls of past times. Genius is not embalmed in them, but lives in them

perpetually.‖

They convey the memory and musings of millions of souls; while all life is mortal

those of books are immortal, a case of survival of the fittest.

News briefings on important topics, the culture of SMS texting, short duration

films etc can they destroy the long narratives and detailed descriptions whichform the main aspect of books? Let us all be rest assured that they operate in a

different domain and can never replace books, there can never be mere briefing

on any major scientific discovery, thesis or religious preaching or sumptuous

philosophy. If at all any of the abbreviated format operators think that they can

replace books then they are only trying to put a huge elephant to death by tying

it to an electrical chair, it will cause more damage than death. Similarly some

people are unduly worried about electronic versions of books as announcing thedeath knell of printed books but let us remember that electronic books are like

seeing a beautiful natural scenery or a woman on screen and the physical

printed book is having the pleasure of being next to them in person. At the

maximum we can flirt with electronic texts but firm lifelong love affairs take

place only with physical books. Electronic versions after tempting us initially will

in fact force us to go in for a physical one. Neither the liveliness of the printed

books nor the love for them will ever vanish because they have an addictive

influence as Terry W. Glaspey writes, ―Let me begin with a heartfelt confession. I

admit it. I am a biblioholic, one who loves books and whose life would seem

incomplete without them. I am an addict, with a compulsive need to stop by

nearly any bookstore I pass in order to get my fix. Books are an essential part of

my life, the place where I have spent many unforgettable moments. For me,

reading is one of the most enjoyable ways to pass a rainy afternoon or a

leisurely summer day. I crave the knowledge and insights that truly great books

bring into my life and can spend transported hours scouring used book stores forvolumes which "I simply must have". I love the smell and feel of well-loved



books and the look of a bookcase full of books waiting to be taken down and

read.‖

They oscillate between opposing opinions and offer opportunity to operate on

our own terms; they offer us various scales of observation and frames of reference to perceive life both from the micro level and from the macro level.

Ursula K. Le Guin points to this aspect in one of her works, ―We read books to

find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and

feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and

may become.‖

They prompt us to perceive properly by pruning our prejudices and

presumptions; In the cosy privacy they can provoke, pamper, please and makeus philosophical and ponder over many things; When they become a lifelong

passion they promote your perception.

They quench the thirst for thought provoking ideas, satisfy the hunger for higher

knowledge and hyper imagination, uproot the evitable errors and leverages

lucid understanding of uncertainties of life etc.

Books with their ever reverberating words are a refreshing refuge for therestless spirits and resources for the rejoicing souls; they reform and renew

relationships; they recreate realities of forgone eras and relive those souls and

thus immortalize the mortal; there are those books that we read and those that

read us; they reveal through appropriate expressions the inner recesses of our

heart, renew through intellectual exchange the process of our brain‘s thinking

and re- enter through creative content to access our soul‘s spirits.

Some books seep into our souls and show us the hitherto unnoticed facets of ourown self and others and the many unrealized hidden splendours by acting as our

real guru; Very often divine intervention seeps in as serendipity through a book

in times of our happiness and sorrow and speaks to us in silence. Miguel Serrano

a Chilean diplomat and writer who has traveled widely in India studying Yoga,

had a close friendship with Jung and Hesse at the end of their lives, writes in a

book which was the outcome of his meetings and correspondence with them,

titled C.G.Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Book of Two Friendships ―As with men,

it has always seemed to me that books have their own peculiar destinies. They



go towards the people who are waiting for them and reach them at the right

moment. They are made of living material and continue to cast light through the

darkness long after the death of their authors.‖

They shape our character and sharpen our intellect; it is because they offer thegreatest impact by turning out to be a two way traffic i.e. we get through them

and they get through us. Anna Quindlen writes about this fact ―In books I have

traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own.‖ They take our soul to

synchronize with its origin by making us sail through reality away from our

illusions and they also take us into flights of hyper imagination away from too

much of dry drudgery.

They can supply as well as shatter superstitions; they sharpen our senses andsensibilities superbly as George R.R. Martin writes ―a mind needs books as a

sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge...That's why I read so

much....‖

They splendidly stimulate and sensationalise; they supply sensuous stories and

sacred sermons with similar impact; they support us.

Sober, sensible, senseless, all sorts of matters sumptuously and smoothly slideinto even our subconscious self through seductive ,sweet, sharp, sensational

and superb expressions and suitably selected vocabulary.

There are some books that appear and sound strange, surprising, startling,

unique and vague at start then slowly they turn out be so familiar by pushing

away all the dark clouds of our assumptive attitudes, conditioned minds,

cluttered thoughts, presumptive and putative perceptions, making us see the

bright sky of reality and truth as they are and as they should be understood;they can help us change our life, steady our life as well as study our life.

They transport thoughts into us silently and implant them, suggest new

thoughts. Besides, they also instigate us and transform us; there are books that

export us to different realms of life especially hitherto unexplored or different

worlds altogether. They teach us without imposing; they touch our heart without

expecting any reciprocation; they are a temple of thoughts between the temples

of the forehead; hospitable hospitals to hurt hearts; solace to sojourn thesorrowful souls; when we open a good and thought provoking book they open up



our mind and when we close them, their contents become close to us. They are

neither cemeteries of thoughts, nor cauldrons of contradictions nor petrified

symbolic statue nor putrefied prejudices of the bygone ages but living

philosophies, ideas popping up as per the reader‘s wish ―Dans les livres, il n'y a

rien ou presque rien d'important: tout est dans la tête de la personne qui

lit.‖ Jacques Poulin [ roughly translated ― In the books there is nothing or

almost nothing important: everything is in the head{mind} of the person who

reads‖] and as Diane Setterfield says, ―There is something about words. In

expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves

around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot

move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you

they work their magic.‖

They can treat us to and also tear apart traditions; they tactfully tuck in truths,

trivia and taboos and trends all with the tacit approval; they thrill , terrify and

take us to different realms; they take us on a tour from tradition to transition to

transformation.

They can be of use to us and also use us; they usher us into the unknown,

unimaginable and unexplored territories of life and also unravel the utilities tounderstand the ubiquitous but hitherto unnoticed aspects of life; there are some

great books that are unique but as we read we start feeling they are universal

because they make us realize that we are the whole universe, part of the

universe and also important participant of the universe.

They can validate our vindications and vindicate our evaluations; they can veer

us towards our vital views of others and help us visit visions of enlightened

souls; they can very beautifully vindicate or vilify voluptuousness, vices andvirtues alike.

Wars and wraths of natural calamities have destroyed many things but not what

have been implanted in the minds and souls of humanity through written words.

They act as teachers, preachers, therapist, friends, relatives etc; they x-ray into

the inner working of negative consciousness through depiction, delineation and

description of various characters and clearly caution us about the modus

operandi of all the stealthy acts like hidden agendas, lurking suspicions, ulterior

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6995.Jacques_Poulin






motives, invisible intentions, cryptic codes, surreptitious scheming and spying,

cabal of conspirators, clandestine criminals, cunning corruptors, assignation of

amorous people, meaning of furtive glances, arrière –pensée of astute

operators, insidious intrusions, latent longings etc.

Reading personal life with all its original thinking, emotions, ideas etc and

reading the books together form the yin and yang of living.

They zoom in the zeitgeist of various eras and zero into our recent and remote

associations with them.

There is nothing that has not been or cannot be put in print except, ironically,

the unique relationship that a book creates between the writer and every reader.

As Simon Cheshire says, ―The relationship between a writer and a reader is

utterly unique to those two individuals. The world that forms in your head as you

read a book will be slightly different to that experienced by every other reader.

Anywhere. Ever. Reading is very personal, a communication from one mind to

another, something which can't be exactly copied, or replicated, or directly

shared. If I read the work of, say, one of the great Victorian novelists, it's like a

gift from the past, a momentary connection to another's thoughts. Their ideas

are down on paper, to be picked up by me, over a century later. Writers can

speak individually to readers across a year, or ten years, or a thousand. That's

why I love books.‖ These moments of unique relationship between the reader

and the writer can only be summed up by what Martin Luther King, Jr. Said,

―Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfilment which

cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings

can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.‖ This reality of

personal relationship that a reader develops with the book has been penneddown by many authors, for example, Àngel Gonzàlez writes, ―Suddenly the

reader's eyes were filled with tears, and a loving voice whispered in his ear: -

Why are you crying if everything in that book isn't true?- And the reader replied:

-I know; but what I feel is real.‖

Parents must read and narrate to small children the great epics, stories,

biographies etc as this could be the best investment and insurance for the child‘s

future. Strickland Gillilan wrote beautifully about this in his poem



‗The Reading Mother‘

“ I had a mother who read to me

Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea.

Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth;"Blackbirds" stowed in the hold beneath.

I had a Mother who read me lays

Of ancient and gallant and golden days;

Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,

Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me tales

Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,

True to his trust till his tragic death,

Faithfulness lent with his final breath.

I had a Mother who read me the things

That wholesome life to the boy heart brings-

Stories that stir with an upward touch.

Oh, that each mother of boys were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be --

I had a Mother who read to me.‖

And slowly but surely introduce them into the world of books and the art of

reading. Here I remember the words of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis ―There are

many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of

all.‖ For, as Rick Holland observes the reality is, ―The world belongs to those who

read.‖ Here it would be better to remember the words of Ayn Rand, ―We can

ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.‖



Anyone writing about books cannot afford to miss Francis Bacon‘s advice as to

how to read, ―Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some

to be chewed and digested‖, and this verse by Edgar A. Guest,

―A Book

―Now‖ - said a good book unto me -

―Open my pages and you shall see

Jewels of wisdom and treasures fine,

Gold and silver in every line,

And you may claim them if you but will

Open my pages and take your fill.

―Open my pages and run them o‘er,

Take what you choose of my golden store.

Be you greedy, I shall not care -

All that you seize I shall gladly spare;

There is never a lock on my treasure doors,

Come - here are my jewels, make them yours!

―I am just a book on your mantel shelf,

But I can be part of your living self;

If only you‘ll travel my pages through,

Then I will travel the world with you.

As two wines blended make better wine,

Blend your mind with these truths of mine.

―I‘ll make you fitter to talk with men,

I‘ll touch with silver the lines you pen,

I‘ll lead you nearer the truth you seek,

I‘ll strengthen you when your faith grows weak -

This place on your shelf is a prison cell,

Let me come into your mind to dwell!‖



Documents

World Book and Copyright Day April 23