Text from my blog luizbrug.com
Literature is amazing
I would never imagine that I would love so much reading literature. I thought that because I’m struggling in life, I should read just self-help books, but reading fiction books is good for my soul as well. Reading just self-help won’t bring me joy to life and will neither let me have more empathy for people.
There are studies suggesting that reading fiction books let you have more empathy for people. It’s amazing because you imagine yourself being a character. You can emulate the emotions of this character, understand his background and transfer it to real life. If a character has an emotional issue and because of that he/she has a determined behavior, you can see it happening also in the real life. You’ll be able to have more empathy for people.
Another amazing fact about literature is the way you feel connected to a different universe. I started to read Peter Pan yesterday and I already want to watch the animated movie again. I don’t have the money to buy the animated movie, but at least it sparked my interest.
Sometimes I get worried if I’m not living too much out of reality with the fiction book, but if we stop and think, what’s reality? It’s our interpretation of the world. A fiction book is an interpretation of the world, an imaginary world, but from the eyes of a different person. It’s said that we can conceive whatever we imagine or create in our minds. Napoleon Hill talks about that and the book The Secret talks a lot about it as well. If you train your imagination with fiction books, you will also train your imagination to conceive things that you want for your life. Why? Because whatever you want for your life, you’ll start with your imagination.
Let’s say you want to have a better health by doing more physical exercises. For that, you can read fiction books with characters that inspire you to do more physical exercises. Or even a movie can inspire you. You can watch The Dark Knight Rises and get inspired by Batman’s struggle to get his back better and go back to Gotham City. But you need to pay attention because you can also get inspired with bad things. For example, you can also read The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell and think that getting drunk is good. It can influence you to have bad behaviors. That’s why it’s good to know what you like in the characters that will inspire you in a good way.
Reading fiction books is also kind like listening to music. It impacts your mood and works with your imagination. If you go to the gym and use a music to pump your state, you can also use fiction books to pump your inspiration for life.
I can’t understand why some authors like David Deida recommend a man not to read books in order to restore his purpose. You can with no problems have discipline and read fiction books. Reading fiction books is part of your discipline. I tried to have austerity and discipline as David Deida says in his book The Way of the Superior Man, but after some days, I felt quite unhappy. I still can’t understand the meaning of restoring your purpose by loneliness and austerity because, the discipline can rigids your heart and the loneliness can detach you from people.
Reading fiction books will also improve your vocabulary. I still have some doubts of how to deal with that. Learning ancient words can be a bad thing if you want to have a more practical vocabulary. You will never use ancient words unless you want to translate or upgrade ancient texts. I think it can be fun learning ancient words because it puts you in a different universe, but you need to be aware of your objectives. I particularly like learning modern words and new slangs because I feel it will make me more connected with what’s happening to the world today. Anyway, even new words have connection with ancient words, so we can’t despise the last ones completely.
You’ll also have a more rapid imagination when reading fiction books. There are people who like drawing and they can get some inspiration from fiction books. Of course you can ally it with real experiences that you have. Reading fiction books in the midst of nature is an amazing experience. You’re allying imagination with real experience, so when you draw, you’ll do it using two important references: the real world and your imagination.
That’s it, folks! I hope you enjoy my text and until the next!