I wish I could say I was that much of a reader. As most know, I am dyslexic and that means that people like me are not known to play nice with books. Yet I persist in being a paradox for I love those pesky buggers that nest in books, most call them "ideas". Over the years, I have collected a number of books and have them in my own 'Aviary'. Most call it a 'library'. In this post, I wish to pass on some wisdom I have learned from other "book people" farther along on there journey than I. Most of these thoughts come from “How We May Manage Our Libraries to the Best Advantage: Ten Directions,” by Tom Lyon, in The Banner of Truth, Issue 543 (December, 2008), pp. 15-17. I have lightly edited this work and added my thoughts in Italics the points in bold.
Direction 1. Always reckon that the best book to be read, the first book to be read and, often, the only book to be read, is God’s book.
The books that the world calls immortal are often the books that show us our own shame. The bible goes beyond shame to Redemption, identity, hope, and the God in whom we (who believe) hear speak thru the bible!
Direction 2. Give no credit to that opinion which holds bookishness in religion in suspicion or contempt.
Direction 3. Do not simply be a collector of books. Retain them not for the number, beauty, antiquity, rarity, value, or mere possession of them.
IT is The Ideas people: the IDEAS!!
Direction 4. Mortify your library. That which you shelve may be construed as the measure of that which you approve.
Unless you do like I do and take one shelf to be your congregation of heretics. Not reading non-Christian books is a great way to never understand the world around you. The key is never reading too much and always reading with your faith in view even if it is fiction. It can become a game; I call it "find the lie" (also called, "find the ticket to hell").
Direction 5. Reckon that, contrary to popular expectation, those books lately written may be inferior to those of another day.
Direction 6. Judge the importance of a book, not by the author’s exuberance or the publisher’s notices, but by the relative weight assigned that topic in God’s book. Weak books struggle through the press with ease nowadays which, strangely, impresses the unwary.
Direction 7. Do not give, lend, or recommend a book which you have not read. Do not trust an author just because he has written helpfully once, or upon one subject.
And if a book never returns to you and the good ones never do take confort in Voltaire's words, "Only your friends steal your books."
Direction 8. Care for your books. Esteem them as friends, for there may be times when they will be the only friends you have!
AMEN AMEN AMEN!!! They have a spine but no arms! So they can teach you how to stand up for yourself but can't stab you in the back. I like how Groucho Marx puts it, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
Direction 9. (A) Always read widely. Avoid the accumulation of devotional material. Sermons are, generally, better heard than read. (B) Read with discrimination. Be quick to part company with that book which fails to promote sound doctrine, solid thought, balanced inference, experiential godliness, and esteem for Christ.
I don't totally agree with nine, think there is wisdom in it though. I would like to qualify this point by saying that reading great sermons trains you in the logic and rhetoric of preaching making you a better listener and speaker, no matter what your vocation. As for discrimination in reading I would agree and add to close yourself off to only what you consider as right and sound is more arrogance and a path to self-deception than discernment. Better learn to eat the meat and throw away the bone. Even Nietzsche was accurate on much of his diagnosis of the modern situation; it is the answers they give to the problems (like in Nietzsche case) that were often in error. As James Bryce wrote "The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it." No matter the type of book it is the reader that must do the hard work of walking away with something - even if all you learned was what not to believe.
Direction 10. Never be found without a book nearby.
why? Because books are important! Like I stated at the beginning I love ideas and I think they are important. Ideas not only color our world but act as the means to the meaning of life. William James speaks to this in his pragmatic definition of truth. "The true is the name of whatever proves itself to be good in the way of belief." While not a great definition of absolute truth, James is on to something. What James means by truth can be better understood as meaning. The 'meaning' people attribute to things can be true or false but those ideas in the mind of a person (a belief) will always color the world they live in. By the ideas we ascribe too(believe) we construct a meaning for the world. It is by that meaning we understand and are guided in this world.
Concluding Thoughts
In conclusion, the ideas that give meaning to our world often come from the books we read, the company we keep, and the things we give ourselves to. As the weak-wristed playwright Oscar Wilde his noted, "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." His words make be wonder what he reads? His point makes be want to read better books. It is in them we find the ideas that form the substance of who we are.
So what is a man's library? It is the home of all ideas, a collection of bricks that give substance to his soul. And a good library is a hospital for human character. A peaceful place, where a great ‘cloud of witnesses’ can train your heart in the wisdom of the ages. As Samuel Davies has once written, "I have a peaceful study as a refuge from the hurries and noise of the world around me. The venerable dead are waiting in my library to entertain me and relieve me from the nonsense of surviving mortals." The venerable dead await to teach us the greater part of being human. Why not collect the ideas of men once departed and find seeds of contemplation that can grow to be the destiny of a man.
What is a man’s library but the evidence of who he will someday be?
