I dare you all, test your strength: Open a book

This is Twain's chapter on wily coyotes: http://www.mtwain.com/Roughing_It/6.html

Interesting...

'then that town-dog is mad in earnest, and he begins to strain and weep and swear, and paw the sand higher than ever, and reach for the cayote with concentrated and desperate energy. This "spurt" finds him six feet behind the gliding enemy, and two miles from his friends. And then, in the instant that a wild new hope is lighting up his face, the cayote turns and smiles blandly upon him once more, and with a something about it which seems to say: "Well, I shall have to tear myself away from you, bub--business is business, and it will not do for me to be fooling along this way all day"--and forthwith there is a rushing sound, and the sudden splitting of a long crack through the atmosphere, and behold that dog is solitary and alone in the midst of a vast solitude!'

Beep, beep.

One thing I really appreciate about good authors is their ability to clearly articulate ideas or impressions that I share, but am unable to express on my own. Or in other words, I love seeing these semi-conscious ideas floating through my mind assembled eloquently in language. I think this takes an enormous amount of skill.

I agree with French author Marcel Proust, who claimed "there is no better way of coming to be aware of what one sees oneself than by trying to recreate in oneself what a master has felt." We can learn what we feel by reading material written by others. We can develop our thoughts through the thoughts of others.

Of course, one shortcoming with this idea, and in my opinion, of literature in general, is that ultimately the author is not ourselves. Despite an authors ability to help us understand our feelings and enhance our sense of perception, there inevitably is a divergence in the particulars of our personal situations and those found in writing. Trying to mold our experiences into those of a book, in hopes of finding answers or guidance, is misguided.

Proust explains better than I can myself:

'It is one of the great and wonderful characteristics of good books (which allows us to see the role, at once essential yet limited, that reading may play in our spiritual lives) that for the author they may be called 'Conclusions' but for the reader 'Incitements'. We feel very strongly that our wisdom begins where that of the author leaves off, and we would like him to provide us with answers when all he is able to provide us with is desires... That is the value of reading, and also its inadequacy. To make into a discipline is to give too large a role to what is only an incitement. Reading is on the threshold of the spiritual life; it can introduce us to it: it does not constitute it.'

Or, as Twain said: "The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't."

I have a tremendously long commute to work. An hour and forty five minutes, one way.

Reading is my only salvation on this commute.

I am saving up for a down payment on a place that I can call my own, and I can single-handedly credit reading for making it easier to grin and bare it. That, and having an awesome job helps a bunch.

Hell, check out the number of books I've read in the past year alone: http://www.jonlim.ca/books-ive-read/

WARNING: They're affiliate links! Don't click through unless you feel like giving me some money for a cup of coffee. :)

And today, with the wide availability of books in electronic formats, not having an interesting book to read is no longer a valid excuse.

While I love reading and heartily recommend it to everyone, there's a huge difference between 'owning skis and not skiing' and 'being able to read and not reading books'.

First, owning and knowing things are completely different.

Second, reading is useful for more than just books. We use it constantly in our daily lives, and you can go your whole life without reading a book and still find it plenty useful.

Reading books might enrich your life and boost your career, but it's hardly necessary.

I guess today he'd be sued for copyright infringement. Sigh.

Does an ebook on a dedicated reader count? ;)

Since our respect for cartoons is so great, some of it ought to wear off on "books", which apparently inspired them?

For an architect ought not to be and cannot be such a philologian as was Aristarchus, although not illiterate; nor a musician like Aristoxenus, though not absolutely ignorant of music; nor a painter like Apelles, though not unskilful in drawing; nor a sculptor such as was Myron or Polyclitus, though not unacquainted with the plastic art; nor again a physician like Hippocrates, though not ignorant of medicine; nor in the other sciences need he excel in each, though he should not be unskilful in them. For, in the midst of all this great variety of subjects, an individual cannot attain to perfection in each, because it is scarcely in his power to take in and comprehend the general theories of them.

Still, it is not architects alone that cannot in all matters reach perfection, but even men who individually practise specialties in the arts do not all attain to the highest point of merit. Therefore, if among artists working each in a single field not all, but only a few in an entire generation acquire fame, and that with difficulty, how can an architect, who has to be skilful in many arts, accomplish not merely the feat -- in itself a great marvel -- of being deficient in none of them, but also that of surpassing all those artists who have devoted themselves with unremitting industry to single fields?

http://gutenberg.org/etext/20239 (The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio)

Vitruvius is famous for asserting that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas -- that is, it must be strong or durable, useful, and beautiful. According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against the elements. When perfecting this art of building, the Ancient Greek invented the architectural orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in understanding the proportions of the greatest work of art: the human body. This led Vitruvius in defining his Vitruvian Man, as drawn later by Leonardo da Vinci: the human body inscribed in the circle and the square (the fundamental geometric patterns of the cosmic order).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvius (Vitruvius)

EDIT: I would like to point out, with relevance to HNers, that Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla were close friends.

http://genevolution.net/documents/twain%20and%20tesla.pdf (Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla: Thunder and Lightning by Katherine Krumme)(2000-DEC-04)(PDF, 5 pages, 22KB)