Food for thought

“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

- Ray Bradbury.

I remember the good old days in Ms. Foster's class (HAH!), when we read Fahrenheit 451. A good book, yet slightly (or extremely...) frightening. Ray Bradbury wrote it approximately fifty years ago and it scares me how he predicted bits and pieces of the future so accurately; nowadays we don't read, we zone out by listening to music with our earphones, we use freeways and we have huge television screens in our living rooms. He portrayed a society full of mindless people and a world in which firemen burned books.

When was the last time you picked up a book on your own will and finished it? Sadly, it's been awhile for me too. With facebook, AIM, oovoo, and iTunes available so readily as I wish, I hardly ever think to open up a book. But reading is too good for the soul, too good for the mind and too good for the heart. I feel that letting months pass by without a good reading is like letting your brain rot slowly.

So today, I managed to compile my own personal reading list. I looked through dozens of "top 100 books" websites, and picked the ones I'm familiar with (mainly classics, along with a bit of romance). I feel oddly accomplished, yet overwhelmed with the thought of how long it'll take to read all of these books (101 in total).

Well, I have no excuses now. Mark Twain said, "I never let schooling interfere with my education," and I really should apply this to my life.

If you want the reading list, ask me and I'll email it to you. It would be too selfish to keep this to myself :) and I want to share with the fellow book worms out there. I apologize in advance if some of the books are ridiculously boring; I wouldn't know since I only added the books that I haven't read myself.