Thursday 6 September 2018

National Read a Book Day


Today marks National Read a Book Day, designated for taking a little time out, dusting of that book you've been meaning to read for ages, and diving right in. Personally I love a good book, everyday is read a book day. but sometimes life gets to distracting, especially now that I'm addicted to the bloody internet.
Research has shown though that reading can have several health and social benefits. frequent readers tend to have lower stress levels than non-readers. (though that is not flipping true in my case). Well read people though tend to be more empathetic and aware of societal ills and differences, and reading is said to be good at improving critical thinking. (Which has assisted me, a lot because I can be an argumentative so and so.)
However harsh and dark the world can be at times, books can provide insights, at the same time freeing minds to engage with contradictory consciousness, without a predetermined end, reading books can be an incredibly enriching experiences, teaching us, moving us, taking us into worlds of the unknown and adventure, they also have the capacity to enrich us, heal us and change our lives forever.
Incidentally the Japanese word tsundoku refers to the act of piling up books without reading them. Have we not all been guilty from one time or other of buying multiple books and letting them pile up without ever getting around to reading them, I do it all the time. A way you could mark National Read a Book Day, is if you have a pile of  books that you know your not going to get around to looking at, simply give them away to your friends, or take them to your local charity shop so others can  appreciate them and have a good read too.
Reading is not just about pleasure, books have the power to touch us profoundly, to open our eyes to injustices, and sometimes even act as a catalyst for social change. If you simply have not the time today,to pick up a fine book and read, keep looking at the breathing living world all around you, and for goodness' sake keep on questioning.
Here are 10 books I'd recommend you read that have helped shape my own world;-

1. The Ragged Trousered Pilanthropist  - Robert Tressell

2. Homage to Catatonia - George Orwell

3. News from Nowhere and other writings - William Morris

4. Towards Democracy - Edward Carpenter

5. The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa

6. The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin

7.Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman

8. Mother Jones Speaks. edited by Philip Foner

9. Thus were there faces ;Selected Stories - Silvina Ocampa

10. Emma Goldman - Living my Life

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