Books - Why read them?

Why read books when you can see the movie? Or watch the TV show. Or why read them at all. They simply take too much of your time and could arguably be not very entertaining. What are books going to do that you that can't be taught in schools or from other source.

You could say they are good exercise for your brain, but I'm sure video games could do just as good job.

What makes books such an integral medium to humanity? What makes them special?

It's because they can change you. They can seep right into your mind and change how you think. It took me roughly a year and a half to get through two thousand pages of Ayn Rand's Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. That is a really long time to figure out what the author really meant, and to take things out of the work and see how they relate to your life and everything around you.

As it was described in Fahrenheit 451, very slowly as you do things like reading books, or going to school, or doing whatever you do, change will build slowly, drop by drop. The change happens so slowly you never notice until you look back and your different than you were before. A mixture of the old you and the new, but the mixture is even better than it's parts.

You won't get change by watching a movie, or an hour special, or going to a single talk, or having one fantastic conversation with a friend. You won't get better at drawing by filling one sketch book, it might take 50 or a 100.

Books change us because we give them a chance to. Books are perfectly designed to change us. They are long, and a little boring so it is difficult to get through them really quickly. They take our full concentration since you can't continue with a blank stare. And they give you a chance to think because they are simply composed of thoughts.

Just for contrast sake, I'll bring up Speed Racer again. I can't classify it in the same realm as a book as a work of art or teaching. Books exist in a first generation realm of knowledge and existence (I am making up this vocabulary and wording). I say this because they can exist on their own. You can read Ayn Rand and get new ideas and concepts out of it. Speed Racer I would have to put in a second generation of knowledge and existence. For it to be truly appreciated by the audience, the audience needs to already know the underlying ideas and concepts. The movie than became an example to be experienced.

I guess what I have realized is that there might be a way to classify art etc into two main fields: the teachings and the examples. I would rudimentary separate books into one column and movies into the next. This is no where near an exact separation, but it helps in understanding.

Kyler