Use for at least 30 minutes a day and you’ll feel the ignorance slowly fade away.
Apart from people whose economic conditions prevent them from accessing the world of books, everyone else who has books available to them but chooses not to read, is choosing to live in the imprisonment of ignorance.
A lot of people think that full education, knowledge about the world and its affairs, are all learnt in school. School is excellent, it’s necessary for a lot of people but it doesn’t cover even half of what you’ll learn about life, the world, people and most importantly, about yourself.
When I was in varsity someone asked me why we were studying in the first place and I told him it was to get a degree so that we could get good jobs.
“No. School teaches us how to learn. When you leave this place, with your piece of paper you will see what a small fraction your degree plays once you get into the real world. You’ll have to find ways to learn more, to grow and to advance.”
I didn’t get it at the time but years later, trying to figure out how to learn, grow and advance in my career and personal life, I got it.
Books are the extra work you will need to make it as far as you wish to go. For some, with natural social smarts, books are all they need.
We’ve been convinced that without an academic qualification the world stops spinning, that we can’t make much of ourselves and that this gorgeous oyster is only for a special few. That is just fucked up on a cosmic scale!
As if that’s not enough, we’re sold all these addictive and time-wasting TV shows and movies that are entertaining but don’t do as much for mental stimulation and offer very little to improve our lives. It doesn’t help that now you don’t have to run home to catch your favourite show but you can access it from wherever, whenever.
Then we have social media, where hours fly while we salivate over the lives of people that are mostly far from reality. Giving us a load of shitty feelings about ourselves.
Then when we finally get our asses off the screen, we’re tired and can only manage the little that we can to survive – go to work, put food on the table and have a place to sleep. If you’re okay with that kind of half-lived life then don’t ever complain about others doing and having more, and you being stuck, unable, discouraged, uninspired, trapped, lost or BORED.
Books have been the gateway to a better life for as long as they’ve existed. They’ve been the compass to knowledge treasures, secrets that opened unknown doors to successes, victories and riches.
History has demonstrated how books and libraries have not just been banned but reduced to ashes to keep people from accessing certain knowledge. Leaders would burn books to keep people ignorant and what a shame it would be if that was no longer necessary because people choose to stay ignorant.
“No, no need to burn ‘em, the fools don’t read anyway.’
It’s not a chore as some lazy people have made it out to be. Half an hour a day is no chore at all. It’s not as time-consuming as it’s also made out to be. “I’m too busy, where will I find the time to read?” If you work out what you do with every minute of your day you’ll see how you can spare way more than thirty minutes.
In books you will find many stories that mirror yours, similar adversities and with ways to overcome them. When you read you give your brain a good workout, you take all that’s written and create a visual representation, stimulating the most important thing that dies as we get older – IMAGINATION. You gain general knowledge and a deep understanding of what is happening around you as well as within you.
How many times have you seen an article about how ultra-successful people credit reading as a big part of their success?
Let’s be clear about one thing; reading does not make you successful. Rather, it’s using the knowledge you acquire from the books that will take you from one level to another.
Choose your books wisely, find out about them from people who’ve read them and read reviews. Jump into it with enthusiasm, with a mission to walk out with life changing tools. Listen, it doesn’t matter if you’re reading fiction or non-fiction, you will find your treasure if you look well enough.
Grab a book and school yourself.
The Book Neighbourhood 