I was browsing through several blogs this morning and was surprised to discover that there are so many people looking for good reads on values – published books on how to live well.
The 21st century is different. The age of chivalry is already forgotten if not long been dead.
I’m thinking of doing a research on writers working on manuscripts about good values. I hope they will get published very soon.
Something can still be done. I’m not losing hope…
Ralph Waldo Emerson was once quoted saying: “I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them.”
In one of his stories, if my memory is correct, Shakespeare wrote something of the same effect. He was referring to friends and friendships. He’d rather have his friends where he could simply know about them but he would never take advantage of them.
What interested me was not the importance of friendship that Emerson mentioned and Shakespeare was so passionate about. Not that I don’t care about my friends. I’m equally passionate about them that I cherish them all my life. But my attention was fixed on what both of them wrote about treating books like treating friends.
It bothered me.
I love books and I use them. There are books that I read and reread. There are also some that I simply browse and set aside. I also have books that I just give away after reading. There are ones that I allow friends to borrow. But there precious collections I never ever lend – the books that touched my life.
I love Shakespeare and all his published books. His poems. His sonnets. His comedies. His tragedies. He is a treasured part of my collection. But I don’t agree with his illustration about simply leaving the books to gather dust on the shelves.
It’s an insult to leave a book untouched and have its pages left unturned.
But then that’s me. And maybe just me.
And of course Shakespeare’s words were written in a certain context.
I wish his words were: “I do then with my books as I do with my friends; I would rather fully engage myself with them than leave them alone…”
Life with my books is so full of passion that I can’t just simply leave them on my shelf.
