Good Books and Problem with them?

Everyone knows the difference between  good books and  bad books. The difference is not about the quality of paper or quality of the print, but is about the message embedded in them. If a book teaches you the ways to earn profit, attain peace of mind, acquire good health, gain wisdom, improve yourself; then such book is to be considered as good.

As your time is precious therefore I will not discuss the traits of a bad book. In this post we will discuss the problems associated with good books only.

Reading Vs Understanding:

You can buy a book, but it does not ensures that you will read it. You can read a book, but still that will not fetch you benefits until & unless you put the knowledge acquired to some practical use. This is true for all kinds of books, including my beloved ‘Chanakya neeti’.

As a matter of fact, reading and understanding are two different things. Both activities are interrelated, but are not the same. A student can cram the definitions, but what’s the use of such knowledge?

The Problem with Interpretation:

We humans generally don’t think outside our comfort zone. This ends up in strange and weird interpretations. I will like to quote a famous story where a doctor tried to warn alcoholics about consumption of liquor by putting a worm in a jar of wine. The poor insect died within a second. Then an alcoholic raised his voice and said “Fantastic! now we have a cure for stomach parasites“. Even same words convey different meaning when spoken in different tone.

Our attempt must be to search for a meaning which is beneficial for oneself and for society.

The Parts of Book:

Everything cannot be perfect and many times there exists a phrase or few which are not good, decent, or beneficial. That does not means that we must reject the whole book. Instead one must reject those phrases and benefit himself from the rest of it.

Conclusion:

At the end I would like to point out the idea of ‘Personal Responsibility’.  It is you who has:

• to decide the kind of books to read.
• to read.
• to read with an open approach.
• to do the filtering.

An intelligent person like you does not require much explanation. Now, it’s your turn to suggest improvements to this post by commenting below.