by James Olny

Created on: February 17, 2007   Last Updated: March 15, 2010

A person who lacks friends might as well not be a person at all. With no one to share your life with and vice versa, what is left? This is why books are so important. With a book, an author can share his life, or the lives of the characters he makes up with you. When you read a book, you begin to empathize with and understand characters, and as the book progresses, they build into something more and more fundamental and real. As a character grows more complex we are able to understand their thoughts and feelings, and begin to truly feel as though this person made up of text on a page is real and apart of our lives.

Also, a book will open us up into new realms and dimensions of thought. A book will give us perspective into unfathomable locations and scenarios and as a result, expand our minds to become more open, and see and realize more to the world than we did previously.

Simple words on paper can transport our minds from our own reality into that of one universes away. How good is that feeling when you're reading, where you're no longer in a room, you're no longer even looking at the words on the page, but somehow, the words feed seamlessly from the page into your mind, and your brain somehow, without even really seeing those words...creates a movie for you, and you end up just watching this movie.

A book is a perfect friend and perfect story teller because it harnesses the will of the imagination which has no bounds, so inn essence, a book is the perfect movie, since it's everything exactly as you want to see it. You will end up creating the most beautiful portraits, landscapes, architecture, and works of art in your mind while reading. Those of far more beauty than the most praised of Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, or Da Vinci's works combined.

Finally, like the scholarly advice of a good friend imparting wisdom, a book will influence your life in a plethora of aspects. Every time you read and become exposed to new ideas, your life sways accordingly. You decide more what you do and don't like, what agrees with you, you think about things you hadn't thought of before and let them guide you. Often enough, it will inspire wanna-be writers with immense writers block into full fledged authors with ideas that are comparable to that of Poe.

A book can be your best friend, even if you are surrounded by friends. Open up to literature and let it into your life, and let it lead you with the assuredness you'd let your best friend lead you with.

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