As the owner of a bookstore, I sometimes find myself forced to defend the value of enterprise—what I like to call the “bookish enterprise.” “How’s it going?” I’m asked by a skeptic, usually a man, almost never an actual buying customer. “You going to survive?”
Gonna go deep into the CR archives for this one but one of the things I was reminded of while reading this was a particularly striking thing your dad said way back on one of the Much Ado About Nothing episodes on TPTT (I think). He was talking about Latin and the vernacular and that Latin was a higher form of language. If you know Latin you can ascend to those heights when needed and can go back down when needed, but if you don't know it, you don't have that option because your brain isn't configured in that way. This rung especially true to me as someone who studied Greek in college—it really does rewire your brain. You really can see how Greece was the birthplace of philosophy just from how the syntax is set up.
But enough linguistics, my point is that I read, and I'm assuming I'm not alone in a vibrant community like this, to enjoy a great story but also a truly good book has you marveling at the writer's skill, especially when they're so skilled it seems effortless. Reading a master like Tolstoy, Garcia-Marquez, Vergil etc not only gives you a great story but has the rewarding, and dare I say productive, side effect of opening up your mind in ways it hadn't been. What those dismissive people you're referring to, and we all know some, really mean is that you don't get a certificate on LinkedIn when you finish East of Eden; you can't put it on a resume like if it were a text book teaching you Python. Yet reading has spillover effects to other parts of life too that shouldn't be discounted even if intangible. Besides booklovers are of course happier, wiser, more fulfilled people (I kid, well, sort of).
As someone who works in finance, you can sometimes see how narrow some people's minds are who just read earnings reports and consultant slide decks, or people who *only* watch sports or reality tv (or still worse cable news) and their lives revolve around celebrities. Those are great too, or can be, but people need the variety and depth books are uniquely suited to provide too. Of course, some media is best suited for specific things too. Like I love football and I love books but if you turned even a Chiefs-Bills game into a book it would be terrible. You need the visual and the atmosphere. Same way many classics do not translate to the big screen well. Anyway, this was a way too long way of saying that those who close-mindedly reject books do so at their peril and close off a lane that is both enjoyable and rewarding.
Gonna go deep into the CR archives for this one but one of the things I was reminded of while reading this was a particularly striking thing your dad said way back on one of the Much Ado About Nothing episodes on TPTT (I think). He was talking about Latin and the vernacular and that Latin was a higher form of language. If you know Latin you can ascend to those heights when needed and can go back down when needed, but if you don't know it, you don't have that option because your brain isn't configured in that way. This rung especially true to me as someone who studied Greek in college—it really does rewire your brain. You really can see how Greece was the birthplace of philosophy just from how the syntax is set up.
But enough linguistics, my point is that I read, and I'm assuming I'm not alone in a vibrant community like this, to enjoy a great story but also a truly good book has you marveling at the writer's skill, especially when they're so skilled it seems effortless. Reading a master like Tolstoy, Garcia-Marquez, Vergil etc not only gives you a great story but has the rewarding, and dare I say productive, side effect of opening up your mind in ways it hadn't been. What those dismissive people you're referring to, and we all know some, really mean is that you don't get a certificate on LinkedIn when you finish East of Eden; you can't put it on a resume like if it were a text book teaching you Python. Yet reading has spillover effects to other parts of life too that shouldn't be discounted even if intangible. Besides booklovers are of course happier, wiser, more fulfilled people (I kid, well, sort of).
As someone who works in finance, you can sometimes see how narrow some people's minds are who just read earnings reports and consultant slide decks, or people who *only* watch sports or reality tv (or still worse cable news) and their lives revolve around celebrities. Those are great too, or can be, but people need the variety and depth books are uniquely suited to provide too. Of course, some media is best suited for specific things too. Like I love football and I love books but if you turned even a Chiefs-Bills game into a book it would be terrible. You need the visual and the atmosphere. Same way many classics do not translate to the big screen well. Anyway, this was a way too long way of saying that those who close-mindedly reject books do so at their peril and close off a lane that is both enjoyable and rewarding.
David, this is fantastic! ♥️ So glad you & Bethany took a chance on a bookshop. Cheers to what they do in our lives! 🥂
Beautifully said David!