Why Read?

"A book must be an axe for the frozen sea inside us."

Franz Kafka 1883-1924

Once one understands the true value of books, a door begins to open leading toward self-discovery and with that an authentic existence may emerge, paving the way toward the maximizing of one's potential.

Books expose the collective mind and bust the reader through the wall that contains the collective mind. Outside the wall lies freedom, but loneliness. Why seek the outside of the wall, if possible pain lies on the other side? Well... once one busts through the wall that person has an advantage over those who remain inside, the advantage being choice.

Inside the boundaries of the collective mind, one's potential is frequently if not always suppressed, but outside the collective mind lie infinate possibilities. Here is where the extraordinary can be accomplished. Here is where one is able to be authentic.

Although those beyond the wall are almost always misunderstood by those within, there is much freedom and satisfaction that comes with it. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "To be great is to be misuderstood." Misuderstood by the masses he meant. Without those who have ventured through the wall, nothing would remain in the world but unconscious robots who cry for reasons they can never understand.

I've heard many Americans say, "love it or leave it" in reference to the United States. At first this angered me, then I thought it pretty funny, but now I almost pity these poor, unconscious souls. I mean how much awareness does it really take to project one's thought process just enough to catch a glimpse of what the country would be like if everyone who ever fell out of love with the country left. First off, it wouldn't even be the US, but rather an extention of England. Second etc. we would be nothing but cogs in a great machine with no comprehension of the words "I" or "freedom. "

So the tremulous pontification begins.