On Giving Thanks – Books

Greetings Dear Reader,

In the office where I do most of my writing I am surrounded by hundreds of books.  As a writer I know the value of reading books.  I read much more than I write.  I read across the centuries.  Fiction and non-fiction are both vital to reading.  I have difficulty making the adjustment to reading digitally.  I love the feel of a book in my hand.  There is not a room where I spend waking time where there is not a bookshelf of sorts.

It needs to be clear that what I love is reading and not just books.  There is a difference.  I know people who collect books and those who collect reading.  I am the latter.  For me books are the collection of the thoughts and questions of others.  It is a chance to see this world or an imagined one through the eyes of someone else.  I have the opportunity listen to and learn from people long dead and in the midst of history.  I get to feel how they felt in the moment.

So much about reading is immersing one’s self in the mind of another.  For a time we become selfless in a fashion.  We give the mind over to the way in which another sees, thinks, and feels.  Even if it is fiction we are seeing the world through the eyes of the writer.  I am so thankful for the many authors who have taken the time and risk to share their thoughts and questions with me.

I pass on this gratitude by giving books to others.  It is with thankfulness that I reach to my shelves for relaxation or research.  It is with a grateful heart that I pick up a tome for some time away from this world.  It is with anticipation that I read to learn a new thing.  It is with yearning for understanding that I read what others have written about God.

Throughout our history when evil men wish to oppress others they take away books.  I am very thankful that I live in a world where my books are mine to read, enjoy, share, and even write.    

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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