Reading is power
KNOWLEDGE is power, or so the saying goes. But how does one acquire the elusive knowledge? Through the proliferation of social media? Sorry friends, not so.
Experience is one way, but the common way of acquiring knowledge is from the written and documented word.
Think about it. How would president Abraham Lincoln have given the epoch-making Gettysburg Address if he could not read and therefore write?
How we would have missed the wonderful works of Shakespeare at school if we were unable to read. Okay, maybe that’s a bad example as the jury is still out on whether Shakespeare should “be thrust upon us”, to misquote Malvolio in the Bard’s Twelfth Night.
Let me just digress a bit here and tell you something I learnt about Shakespeare while reading. It appears that in his complete works, there are over 2 400 similar phrases that occur in the Holy Bible. Some harsh critics have suggested plagiarism.
Others have questioned whether Shakespeare was one of the translators of the Bible – well, at least the Old Testament – which might explain why there are so many similarities.
Well, here is something that I read that cleared the cobwebs for me post-haste. Open the King James version of The Bible and turn to Psalm 46.
If you count the 46th word from the beginning of the 46th Psalm, you would find the word “shake”. If you count the 46th word backward from the end of that Psalm, you would find the word “spear”. Huh? It’s a fact!
Some say Shakespeare put that in the Bible as his signature or as a clue that he did indeed play a part in the translation. But it gets creepier.
Shakespeare was born in 1564. The King James translation of The Bible began in the year 1610 – the year the Bard of Avon turned 46.
Okay, let’s move on and closer to home. How would we have been able to enjoy learning about the life of the iconic Nelson Mandela if we were not able to read Long Walk to Freedom? Suffice to say, reading liberates the mind. In the latter context, that saying takes on a variety of meanings.
They say the best gift a parent can give a child is life. Let me venture to say that the second-greatest gift a child could receive is a love for reading.
It’s imperative that parents inculcate in their young ones the hunger to learn through reading.
I grew up in a household amid a culture of reading. On the weekends, my sibling and I would accompany my parents to the local book exchanges.
My dad was a prodigious reader with a leaning toward Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler and similar thrillers.
My mother was also a voracious reader who embraced the works of James Hadley Chase and, interestingly, she loved westerns by Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey.
At that time I got lost in the world of comics like Archie, Popeye and Donald Duck. From there grew a love of reading that has not abated.
There are some literary misogynists who are proud to confess that they have never read a book in their lives. I feel sorry for them and their ignorance.
Books open up vast vistas, take you to other countries and teach you life skills – all in the comfort of your own home.
If you are still reading this piece, I am sure you must be wondering what my favourite book is and why?
Well, it was published in 1885: Sir H. Rider Haggard wrote a high adventure novel set in Africa called King Solomon’s Mines.
The book captivated my soul as I have a deep yearning and love for this continent. The drums of Africa beat loudly in my psyche and that book started it all.
Feel free to e-mail me at the address below and tell me which is your favourite book.
If you are not into reading, don’t beat yourself up. You have actually read this column, so you are not doing too badly.
What I do suggest is that you turn over a new leaf and get to enjoy reading. It will open up a whole new world for you.
Keep those pages turning. Read! It’s the “write” thing to do.