Booktree

Intriguing picture I found while looking for books.

Read the printed word

Time and time again books have been made into movies. The books were best sellers, the authors were renowned and the directors thought the best books made the best movies. Although a movie based off of a book may have been successful and good, it does not replace the written word of the story. There is a beauty that is woven like silk when a person reads; it is the imagination of a person born from the art of reading. When pictures and ideas are strewn through a reel and cast before a person’s eyes the ideas pass through the person’s mind liked water through fingers. The imagination must be used and the best possible way for a person’s mind to be used, to be drawn to its full potential, is to have the mind follow a story; to read the printed word found in the pages of a book. A person’s imagination and the person’s mind are used when reading, not when watching a movie. If the person’s mind is used to the most potential when reading then one ought to read the books instead of watching the movies about the novels and books written.
Every year when a new movie comes out there will always be at least one that is based off of a book. The movies allow for the many who do not like reading, claim they do not have the time to read and plainly despise reading to gain an abridged version of a story for an hour or two of his life. Movies in and of themselves are not bad. They are a way to pass the time, they are a way of art in their own sense, but they cannot replace the written word. Literature, the written word, enables a person to use his mind and his imagination. Without someone using his imagination there will be no other books, movies or even thought for someone to ponder on, let alone write about.
The death of literacy will bring about an ignorant culture in which communication will no longer be used, and if used, will be butchered. For one, literature is an art; it is a way of communication. When a story is written for a reader it is written for many different purposes, among the many are to inform and entertain. When a person reads he either dose it because the reading was assigned from a textbook or a classic novel, a story that intrigued them in the book store or a book that informs them of an interest he has in something. For whatever reason a person reads, he will gain knowledge. That knowledge may be stored away or used. Whether used or stored away for later application it is something that is put in the persons mind to ponder and to challenge.
Reading is not passive, it is active; it paves the way for new thoughts, theories and explanations. When a person reads he must engage with the text. If a person reads to learn he will walk away with knowledge he did not have previously. The person explores theories and thoughts on subjects and is able not to passively take what is in the text, but to think about what is written. Even when the reading is done for pleasure, just for the sheer joy to read and engage in a story, the person still learns. Reading a story for pleasure promotes creativity, it enables the person to use his or her imagination. The imagination of a person is when brings about new stories, new theories and new explanations.
The movies based upon books may be easier and more convenient, but is the saving of a few hours or a few nights or reading worth the depletion of thought? The knowledge, the creativity and the ability to use your mind to think a problem through to a solution and to develop new theories ad thoughts cannot be replaced by an abridged version of a story thrust upon a large screen. Reading casts a person into a world of characters, throughout time and allows a person to explore and try on new characters. A movie however entertaining it may be cannot allow a person to become the character, the person is instead a bystander watching the story unfold on the screen instead of being a part of the story. The experience gained from reading the printed word can never be replaced by movies based upon the stories.