Reading is a past time activity for many of us. In equal measure, to others among us, it is life itself.
Sometime ago, I was going through my Facebook Newsfeed when I clicked to read the full version of an article by a friend. In it, he made some confessions that shocked me to the marrow: He said, to him, Facebook is life itself. It was the first time I will be hearing someone say that!
I was about to type him a furious comment when I called myself back, to introspectively ask myself if I am not being hypocritical. For while Facebook or social media might not be life to me, reading books certainly is. To me too, reading books is an engagement I can safely describe as “life itself”.
So, with some embarrassment, I withdrew my fingers from the keyboard and refrain from typing the comment I initially had in mind. For I am guilty of having an activity that is “life itself” to me too.
Many people like me and my friend on Facebook abound around the world. People who have a “life” after life itself. For a majority of them (including me), this “life” is reading. Reading is important to us almost as the breath we take.
What to read is however locked away in books; books sometimes faraway, unreachable; the good and the bad of them. Most of us read whatever books that reach us by chance, and this is dangerous.
Declaring it is “dangerous” might sound hyperbolic though! But we are what we read. The kind of books we read have a great influence on who we are, how we think, and how we act. The level of our intelligence can also be greatly determined by the kind of books we have read.
This should not be a problem if everybody is getting it right. Or if there are no newbies just embracing the reading culture, who naturally need guidance. For going into books is not just a simple affair of just taking a headlong dive; unless one just wants to dive into the cesspit of the worst of books!
Books should be the best molders of men and women, not an object that disfigure their minds.
For books to mold us a fine mind, a fine intellect, a decluttered reasoning and understanding of the world, we must make deliberate actions to select the kind of books we read.
While some good books we have read came into our lives by chance, many were also deliberately sought and acquired. It is that skill of deliberately choosing your books that this article is all about.
Also, this article will especially be tailored to educate newbies into this book-reading hobby on how to only find the best of books, and avoiding the worst that will be of little or no benefit to them at all.
Let’s go!
1. Embrace Reading Classics: Disengage from Fringe Books
We all know what classic books are. For those who don’t know, in the book reading universe, the word “classic” is the kind of word that evokes Shakespeare into the mind.
However, Shakespearean collections are far from being the only classic among books, and this applies to all other similar quaint-sounding authors from five hundred years ago.
Classics are just books that are popular for their literary, artistic, social or historical merits.
The reason why you should embrace classics is because they are book that have earned their place in history because of the quality of their content. Don’t forget that only good contents should go into your mind.
By the definition above, you would have understood that Classics are still being produced today, they are not limited to old publications alone.
For example, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a well regarded social commentary classic, and it was published in 1960.
One other advantage of reading classics is that there is a fat chance of getting someone to discuss the book with or who will serve as your reading partner. This is possible because classic books enjoy wide readership that cut across all ages of readers.
Classics usually also mold society during their time of publication. So if you want to feel the vibe of how life was during a certain period in the past, read the classics of those period. For example Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer is a popular classic that describes how life was in the antebellum United States.
As you enjoy your classics, conversely, avoid fringe books!
Fringe books are books that have a low circulation, a dismaying content and are usually addressing odd subjects in a disorganized way. While they are usually published by obscure authors, some are also usually published by well-known authors. I personally considered Ben Okri’s The Famished Road a fringe book, for while it was written by an author of great standing, the book was never popular among the mass of general reading public. Its content is odd and will confuse the reader at many points. Only people who know what they are looking for inside the book will enjoy it. It’s the book for the fringe.
2. Make a search for “List of Best Books Ever In (Mention the Name of the Subject)”: Avoid Random Mentions
So you are a newbie looking to start reading good books and embracing the reading culture whole-heartedly? Start by reading the best books in your field of interest. Do not gallivant into reading books that will kill your zeal for reading other books.
A good place to start is the internet, Google specifically. Type in “List of Best Books Ever In (Mention the Name of the Subject)” in the search box and check out the links that come up on the first page. It’s a method I have come to love in selecting new books to read and to read reviews. Most of what the search results will bring up are lists compiled by reputable publishing house and book sellers. The list they make are usually painstakingly researched and I have confirmed the quality of their recommendations by reading some of the books recommended there. I was not disappointed.
This method works for looking for books on almost any subject.
However, whenever you are just anywhere on the internet, avoid going after any random mentions of books titles if you don’t want to waste your time and money!
This is especially common on internet forums: People will want to buttress a point they made by mentioning the books that influenced their idea. I have often discovered following up such books is often a waste of time. On a lot of occasions, the books they mention may not be about the subject matter they were talking about at all.
However be it though, excellent books are sometimes randomly mentioned/recommended on such forums too, but my experience has shown that this is the exception rather than the norm.
3. Read more from Nobel Prize Winners (or Award Winning Books): Read less from sensational writers
The more you go up, the more you find the best, the more you go down, the more you find the worst.
This maxim is applicable to how you should choose your authors.
Celebrated authors are celebrated for their excellence, most times, deservingly. You will be doing your mind some disservice if you now wholeheartedly embrace sensational authors in place of mature ones.
Remember books are supposed to improve your mind and bring the best out of you? In all likelihood, you won’t get this benefit by reading sensational publications.
Contents in book written by top authors exercise your mind. In contrast, sensationalistic publications by mediocre authors only feed you information and add no badge to your mind.
Have you read George Orwell’s Animal Farm, or William Golding’s Lord of the Flies? These are books by world famous authors of the 20th Century (Golding was a Nobel Prize Winner) and the quality of their contents have improved generations of human mind. It is the reason why they are still celebrated today.
In contrast, how many of those brazenly sensational authors and gossip journalists have won the Nobel Prize? Or even any award of journalistic excellence approaching the Pulitzer? They can’t because the content they feed their readers add little or no substance to the quality of their readers’ personage or minds. And the more you seek these kinds of publications, the lower you go into the abyss of mediocrity.
The long and the short of our message is that you should read authors that are passing across a tangible message while you stay away from authors whose writing benefits nobody’s life except the writer’s pocket.
Choosing a scholar to guide your reading is also highly encouraged.
4. Browse Library Catalogs: Ignore Tabloid Catalogs
Catalogs periodically published by libraries about their new book additions are a great way to start your reading journey. They usually contain details about some specially selected volumes among their new additions, which you might enjoy.
A typical catalog will list all the book a library currently have in its collection, including extra details about some special volumes and bio-notes about some of the authors.
Books may also be ranked according to their merits in library catalogs.
This makes them a good resource for objectively selecting your reading material.
Another way you can come across book catalogs is through some tabloids (or newspapers), but do not take these seriously!
Actually, apart from those, all catalogs of books other than from a library or book seller should be suspect. This is because books in such catalogs are usually listed merely based on an author’s fame (and not the book merit), or the whole catalog might be part of a massive advertising campaign surreptitiously sponsored by publisher(s).
5. Try out Best Sellers: Watch out for Bad Reviews
Publications like the New York Times have famously maintained a Best Sellers list for decades. And this is good for everybody.
Although a lot of shitty books have made it to their best sellers list for one reason or the other, it is still a well regarded standard for judging books. Because normally, badly written books rarely become best sellers.
In the same vein, you can pick out bad books from the kind of reviews they get, especially from other readers.
Book reviews are a dime for a dozen on the internet. There is likely to be a review of a book whenever it is mentioned, no matter how amateurishly it is done. So if you are curious about what people are saying about a particular book, mention it to Google!
However, please note that not all reviews are true, so be prudent when basing your purchase of a book on reviews.
6. Ask Staff: Not Non-readers
Libraries and bookstore staff tend to be great readers themselves. They can suggest the best books around to you and keep you away from the worst. Talking to them will save you a lot of time and money.
In the same vein, you might already have discovered it is never the best practice to ask about books from infrequent or non-readers: Some people are only familiar with many titles of books simply because their fathers have it in their personal libraries! Not because they themselves have read it. Beware of such people.
7. Ask Friends and Family: Not the Sales Agent
You will most likely get sincere recommendations about the best books if you ask from older and more experienced family members and friends, rather than the book sales agents.
Agents selling books to institutions are especially guilty of giving insincere advice regarding books. Since after all, most of them are only after their own commission from book sales!
This practice have been the culprit behind many worthless books finding a place within school curriculums. Many agents have been bribed by authors and publishers to recommend their publications by all means, even when they know the book they are putting forward is below par.
Same thing goes when these agents recommend books to individuals.
Since you are the individual in this case, make a note to get recommendations from neutral parties like family and friends rather than sales agents whenever possible.
8. Write your own
Perhaps, the best books yet to be produced will be written by you. Why not give writing your own dream book a try?
All the books that are regarded as the best or worst today were written by someone. You never know, your knowledge of what is good and what is worst among books might help you in writing the best of them yet.
Take a pen and start writing today. However, make sure your write a beneficial piece. The world is waiting to hear what you want to say!
As a parting gift, here are some extra book and reading facts you might like to know:
1. There are over 129 million books in existence.[1]
2. On estimate, there are 755,755 new books published each year.[2]
3. 68% of books sold worldwide are bought by women.[3]
4. The term ‘bookworm’ originates from insects who live in and feed on the binding of books.[4]
5. The earliest known written existence of the word ‘book’ is in a book by Alfred the Great.[5]
6. 1453 saw the first ever book published: the Gutenberg Bible. It was printed by the inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg.[6]
7. Author’s names didn’t used to be printed on the covers of their books.[7]
The covers of the first printed books were considered artworks. They were covered in drawings, leather and even gold — so there wasn’t a place for the author’s name. [8]
8. There is an actual word for loving the smell of old books, it’s Bibliosmia. [9]
9. Icelandic people read more than anyone. [10]
10. Up to 50 books can be made from 1 tree. [11]
11. Longest known novel ever written is Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, containing an estimated 9,609,000 characters. [12]
12. Tsundoku means “to let reading materials pile up in one’s home and never read them” in Japanese. [13]
13. A study found that you are 2 ½ times less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in later life if you read regularly. [14]
14. In America, the most banned books are Harry Potter. The apparent reasons are because they promote witchcraft, they set bad examples and are too dark. [15]
Thanks for reading!
References:
1. 11 Random Facts About Books That Are Weirdly Interesting – https://hellogiggles.com/reviews-coverage/books/random-facts-books/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
2. Top 20 Book Facts – https://digital.imprint.co.uk/top-20-book-facts/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
3. 14 Facts About Books And Reading For The Fanatical Bookworm – https://bookstr.com/list/14-facts-about-books-and-reading-for-the-fanatical-bookworm/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
4. Ibid.
5. Top 20 Book Facts – https://digital.imprint.co.uk/top-20-book-facts/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
6. 14 Facts About Books And Reading For The Fanatical Bookworm – bookstr.com/list/14-facts-about-books-and-reading-for-the-fanatical-bookworm/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
7. 11 Random Facts About Books That Are Weirdly Interesting – https://hellogiggles.com/reviews-coverage/books/random-facts-books/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
8. Ibid.
9. Top 20 Book Facts – https://digital.imprint.co.uk/top-20-book-facts/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
10. 11 Random Facts About Books That Are Weirdly Interesting – https://hellogiggles.com/reviews-coverage/books/random-facts-books/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
11. Top 20 Book Facts – https://digital.imprint.co.uk/top-20-book-facts/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
12. 14 Facts About Books And Reading For The Fanatical Bookworm – bookstr.com/list/14-facts-about-books-and-reading-for-the-fanatical-bookworm/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
13. Ibid.
14. Top 20 Book Facts – https://digital.imprint.co.uk/top-20-book-facts/ (Retrieved 1-4-2019)
15. Ibid.
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