Bibliophile Guild

Mozart the Meerkitten said:
With my imagination books might as well be alive. And at any rate- what about when books are based off of real experinces and the characters off of real people? Wouldn't that make them (in a way) alive and real? Books are not just "bound paper with symbols pressed upon it" they contain the feeling and life that the author places in them through characters, places and themes. They can touch you for good or bad (as has been said) and can influence you to do something or not to.
And to take it to the ultimate level in this argument: what about the Bible? The Word of God can you really say that it is just merely words on a page? Now granted books don't usually have divine breath in them but even in some of my own stories I can feel God working through me in some places as I write them. Books aren't just paper with words on them, and that's just all there is to it. At least in my mind that's how it is, but I think you're disalusioning(sp?) yourself if you think that books are just papers with words pressed upon them.
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good point,
I don't think I realized the full extent of what I said. I have had in the past many an individual blame a book for what someone took bad influence from. To me a book can do no more harm than what the individual allows. This is not to say that books are without their own spirit and ideas. Literarerly they are pressed paper, but the ideas presented is taken differently by each individual. For example, A book that spreads lies about Christianity, would have little influence over my world view because I know to check up false claims with scripture, another individual may fully believe it's lies. My point was that books cannot be held responsible for what we take from them. Yes, I do think there are books that could possibly be demon influenced (Cult books, books on witchcraft, the satanic bible. etc), but the reader should be able to decern good from evil. We all have a conscience, whether we make ourselves callus to it is our own undoing that only God could repair.
As far as the Bible, I see God every time I read, I feel his presence and it's like his breath. But, yet there are those who read the Bible and see Yiddish fairy-tales. It's perception and what we want to believe. Otherwise we'd all be the same and have all the same interests and Ideas. Unfortunately, that freedom of choice God blessed us with , allows us to believe things we shouldn't and push ourselves away from His Glory.
 
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Soldier of Aslan said:
To play 'devil's advocate' here, I think the quote is baloney. Books are nothing but bound paper with symbols pressed upon it. It can do nothing to an individual. However, an individual has full control on how he lets the information presented in books effect him, based on his previous experiences in life and how he receives the information. This explains the saying on my last post.
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OK, let's go with that for a moment. SoA, to a certain extent, I agree with you. To a man who speaks Mandarin Chinese exclusively, 'bound paper with symbols pressed upon it' printed in the English language means nothing! It's all unintelligible. In other words, he doesn't know its significance from that of the side of a barn. It can't do anything to him. However, if you or I were to pick up that same book and read it, it could have a remarkable influence - not for the ink on the paper, but for what that ink means. Remember, if you took ink and spilled it across a page, would it mean anything? Not at all! Now, if you took the same ink and wrote me a short note with it, it would have meaning. It's still the same ink and paper, but now it means something. That's the mystery of God's gift of language. Nothing in language would mean anything if no one could understand it. Think of the Tower of Babel. Why was the project halted? Because no one could understand his fellow man. Why, was he not speaking loud enough? Au contraire, there was likely a lot of shouting going on. Was he speaking unintelligibly? Yes, unless you were his family member and could understand him.
So for a while, we can say that books are just ink on paper, but to someone who can read that ink, the ink has significance enough to mold that person. Granted, the saying 'You are what you read' is not literal, but it makes a good point. What you read will almost invariably have an effect on you eventually. Further, the more you read of something, the more difficult it becomes to minimize its effect on your life.
Finally, though, here's the kicker. I will never pick up a book I hate, like Harry Potter, or Twilight, and read. We consistently read what we want to read. How many of you will actually willingly go into a library and check out a book that you know you will despise? Therefore, I feel that the saying is not entirely accurate. To a point, we really 'read what we are'. What you read is a reflection of who you are more than who you are is a reflection of what you read.

Mike
 
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*Me thinks this thread should be moved to a place like the Christianity section...it's becomin quite deep. ;)

as for books influencing how you think, I'm in-between arguments. First of all, I don't think that you should be able to just read whatever you want with no consequences; I don't read Harry potter or Twilight for a very good reason (I don't need that kind of trash paraded before my eyes). Of course you should be able to discern messages within books even if they're marketed as Christian books, but I would think that discernment should come before you open the front cover, not after you finish the last page.
 
Sopespian said:


OK, let's go with that for a moment. SoA, to a certain extent, I agree with you. To a man who speaks Mandarin Chinese exclusively, 'bound paper with symbols pressed upon it' printed in the English language means nothing! It's all unintelligible. In other words, he doesn't know its significance from that of the side of a barn. It can't do anything to him. However, if you or I were to pick up that same book and read it, it could have a remarkable influence - not for the ink on the paper, but for what that ink means. Remember, if you took ink and spilled across a page, would it mean anything? Not at all! Now, if you took the same ink and wrote me a short note with it, it would have meaning. It's still the same ink and paper, but now it means something. That's the mystery of God's gift of language. Nothing in language would mean anything if no one could understand it. Think of the Tower of Babel. Why was the project halted? Because no one could understand his fellow man. Why, was he not speaking loud enough? Au contraire, there was likely a lot of shouting going on. Was he speaking unintelligibly? Yes, unless you were his family member and could understand him.
So for a while, we can say that books are just ink on paper, but to someone who can read that ink, the ink has significance enough to mold that person. Granted the saying 'You are what you read' is not literal, but it makes a good point. What you read will almost invariably have an effect on you eventually. Further, the more you read of something, the more difficult it becomes to minimize its effect on your life.
Finally, though, here's the kicker. I will never pick up a book I hate, like Harry Potter, or Twilight, and read. We consistently read what we want to read. How many of you will actually willingly go into a library and check out a book that you know you will despise? Therefore, I feel that the saying is not entirely accurate. To a point, we really 'read what we are'. What you read is a reflection of who you are more than who you are is a reflection of what you read.

Mike
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I agree with you and have corrected myself in my later posts (such as the one on top of this page), I'm feeling I'm not quite getting my opinion out correctly in words. Bare with me, while I try to get what I'm saying across. My first post was late last night/morning and I didn't realize all I was implicating. Again please refer to my later posts, Thanks and sorry!
 
Aravis Kenobi said:
*Me thinks this thread should be moved to a place like the Christianity section...it's becoming quite deep. ;)
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I agree. It's not so Dufferish after all! :p

I think that books have great influence on people. While not literally alive, our imagination can make them seem so. I like to imagine what books would say if they could talk. xP What histories they hold. From an antique book from a relatively new book at the library, what have they experienced? Where have they been? What kind of people read them? How has the book inspired someone, has it in some way changed the course of history just by tweaking a small aspect in someone's life? (Obviously, this can be applied to anything, not just books. But I like to imagine it with books.)

And now for some quotes about books and writing:
(I don't necessarily agree with all of them, but I think they're all food for thought.)

Lemony Snicket:

"A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them."

"All the secrets of the world are contained in books. Read at your own risk."

"Well-read people are less likely to be evil."

"No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don't read is often as important as what you do read."

"A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded."

I know this feeling. :D
"The book was long, and difficult to read, and Klaus became more and more tired as the night wore on. Occasionally his eyes would close. He found himself reading the same sentence over and over. He found himself reading the same sentence over and over. He found himself reading the same sentence over and over."

"But one type of book that practically no one likes to read is a book about the law. Books about the law are notorious for being very long, very dull, and very difficult to read. This is one reason many lawyers make heaps of money. The money is an incentive - the word "incentive" here means "an offered reward to persuade you to do something you don't want to do - to read long, dull, and difficult books."


Cornelia Funke, author of Inkheart:

"Stories never really end...even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page."

"Books have to be heavy because the whole world's inside them."

"If you take a book with you on a journey,...an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting your memories. And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it. It will all come into your mind with the very first words: the sights you saw in that place, what it smelled like, the ice cream you ate while you were reading it...yes, books are like flypaper--memories cling to the printed page better than anything else."

"The world was a terrible place, cruel, pitiless, dark as a bad dream. Not a good place to live. Only in books could you find pity, comfort, happiness - and love. Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave you security and friendship and didn't ask anything in return; they never went away, never, not even when you treated them badly."

"It's a good idea to have your own books with you in a strange place."
 
Over the past few days I have come into the possesion of many classical books (mostly) such as most of Shakesphere's well known works (or all his works known by my school :p), Beowolf, Sense and Sensbility, Jekyll and Hyde, several Mark Twain books, some biographies, books of poetry, and at least a dozen others. The reason being is rather sad- its because my school is closing- but I get lots of interesting books! I got three bagfulls the last few days and there have got to be at least 50+ more in my school that are up for grabs. Yesterday I commented that, "Its like a book sale, only you don't have to pay." :D and my friends and I have made various comments about how we're going to need more bookshelves after this. All very exiting I assure you.:D
(I might get more books tomorrow too. xD)
 
I love how Cornelia Funke adds snippets from other books at the beginning of each chapter. They are always so fun to read! :D
 
My B&N had a sale on C.S. Lewis related books. I have one three-in-one book of his writings and a book entitled 'The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy' that was not authorized by estate nor Disney (It was released during the winter of 2005).
The Narnia book was in the bargin Philosophy and thinking section and the Lewis volume was in this rack of 'Last Chance' discounts.
 
Mozart the Meerkitten said:
Over the past few days I have come into the possesion of many classical books (mostly) such as most of Shakesphere's well known works (or all his works known by my school :p), Beowolf, Sense and Sensbility, Jekyll and Hyde, several Mark Twain books, some biographies, books of poetry, and at least a dozen others. The reason being is rather sad- its because my school is closing- but I get lots of interesting books! I got three bagfulls the last few days and there have got to be at least 50+ more in my school that are up for grabs. Yesterday I commented that, "Its like a book sale, only you don't have to pay." :D and my friends and I have made various comments about how we're going to need more bookshelves after this. All very exiting I assure you.:D
(I might get more books tomorrow too. xD)
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How sad that your school and its library is being disbanded, but how fortunate at least some of those books will go to a good home -- Yours!

I trust the books I am giving away because of my move will find their way to happy homes as well.

Miss D, SofA and Sopespian,
Books that I like make a lasting impression on my imagination; and their characters and words continue to inspire and challenge my thinking long after I turn the last page. Like that wonderful image of Lucy reading The Beautiful Story on Coriakin's Island: for ever after that experience became the measuring stick for all great stories she came across -- to the extent they reminded her of The Story. Lewis himself experienced this Joy when he first encountered the writings of George MacDonald and the Norse legends. And I have felt the same with a few books, in which you start out as reader-author and end up as adopting not only the writers but also many of their characters as virtual friends.

Conversely books I do not care for quickly fade into an amorphic sense of dislike and soon I recall nothing at all about their specific details.
 
Soldier of Aslan said:
My B&N had a sale on C.S. Lewis related books. I have one three-in-one book of his writings and a book entitled 'The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy' that was not authorized by estate nor Disney (It was released during the winter of 2005).
The Narnia book was in the bargin Philosophy and thinking section and the Lewis volume was in this rack of 'Last Chance' discounts.
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Huzzah and well done! It feels as if ye have won the lottery when ye find a bargain on something thou dost truly want. :)
 
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