I consider myself blessed to have had much opportunity to read as much as I liked. I would often sit at the crook of the staircase at home, taking two hours to finish my lunch while reading some book or other that I had borrowed from the National Library. I did go out to play with other children in the neighbourhood, typically engaging in what we called “Rounders”, a sort of baseball/ cricket-like game, hunt each other with “Buah Cheri” (Using the unripe fruit) guns, pelt each other with tennis balls in what was called “Hantam Bola” (Beat with a ball), and get spiders to fight each other. Otherwise I would cycle out to the market, buy slabs of frozen beef odds-and-ends, frozen ox liver or pork bones, come home and prepare food for the dogs. When I returned to reading, I was also blessed to have had access to quite a few years of the National Geographic magazine which my parents subscribed to for the family. For me, though, my reading habit was started by my being able to read the Bible, especially with the easier-to-read Living Bible translation, even though I was also comfortable with the King James Version. Reading the Bible caused me to want to discover more about God’s Creation all around me. Did I read to fill my empty noggin? No. I never thought I had any emptiness in my noggin. I read because I wanted to know more. Did I read stuff which I should not have? Yes, just like everybody else. Was I ruined because I read stuff that I should not have looked at? Of course! I have been blessed, however, by having had access to the Bible, which was the only Book that could have repaired whatever portion of my mind had been ruined. Do I want to have those undesirable, those bad things, removed from my mind, perhaps hypnotically? Absolutely not! They have faded already and they will be swallowed up in good and pure memories in the days to come.
What am I saying here? I am saying that all of us need to read the Bible consistently because the Bible will cause us to seek for more and more examples and manifestations of Creation which will glorify the Creator. I am saying that many people are in the Emergency Room right now because of Excessive Reading. What is Excessive Reading? It is reading stuff which one should not touch. A certain Dr James Orr, in a conversation with the Hon John Anderson, quoted someone else remarking that the writings of a certain philosopher, I think it was Bertrand Russell, could be divided into red books and black books. Everyone should read the black books and discard the red ones, the red ones being full of absolute nonsense. If you don’t want to read the Bible, then at least read the things I write or inculcate a tropism in yourself to seek out writings which actually make sense to you and cause you to move in the direction of human flourishing.
Only a village idiot will believe that it takes a village to raise a child. It takes parents to do that. Only the same imbecile will think that children benefit by being raised in a house full of books. That’s because having a house full of books does no one any good if they are not being read, discussed and applied or eschewed. That’s assuming most of the books in the house are actually good books. I would recommend the following, for a start:
Whatever Thomas Sowell and Milton Friedman write. I don’t agree with their worldviews, but they make sense because they base their writings on facts as far as possible.
Most of what is published by the Hoover Institution would make for a good read. You don’t have to agree with them, but they still make for a good read.
What Steven Koonin writes about climate change is good for expanding your mind on this topic.
Look up Jay Bhattacharya for things COVID and epidemiological.
I just got introduced to Joel Salatin and “The Marvellous Pigness of Pigs” and I will certainly help myself to more of his writings.
Those are good for a start, doesn’t matter whether you are still a child in school or college or whether you’re in the process of “retiring” from the “workforce”, whatever that means. Enjoy Reading. Do not indulge in Excessive Reading. Otherwise you’ll be spending your life in the Emergency Room. You’re welcome!
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