You Become What You Read
Posted: Friday, November 07, 2008
by Daniel Massicotte
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I really cannot get over how much we are shaped by what we read. This weekend I was reading "The Secret History." In this novel, four kids kill a few people and go about their days plotting how to cover it up so that they don't spend the rest of their lives in jail. I found that as I was reading the book I was thinking about things like: Could I create mental barriers to killing someone? How bad is killing someone today?
I found that my thoughts were occupied with what I was reading about. Yet it was just last week that I was reading Evelina, and acting all gentleman-like around all my friends. In Evelina, polite, kind and proper norms are what are highlighted on.
This summer I was reading a lot of books governing positive thinking. Subsequently throughout the summer I focused on how I could live a positive lifestyle and be happy all the time. Proportionately, I read 25 books on this subject, vs. the one book I read on college kids killing their classmates. This is probably why I won't really dwell on this topic and will go back to helping others see the good in living for today vs. living for a future date some 30 years in the future.
My word of caution from this experience is that you become what you read. We all know that people become what they think about. I guess when you read a book you end up thinking so much about it, it's almost like you are thinking about it too.
Tremendous Jones used to say: "In 15 you will be the same person except for two things: The people you meet, and the books you read." I now realize just how true that statement is.
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