THE PRINCIPLE OF A BOOK

Don't you sometimes wonder why books are so fascinating? Often you hear someone say, "Have you seen Such and Such movie?" - and the response is often "Yes, but the book was better."

Books live in our minds. Movies are fleeting images that flash through our minds but we can't revisit the scenes as easily as we can revisit thoughts that formed in our heads as we read a book. We are in charge of our own imaginations and the characters and the scenes in the story are as we want them to be not as someone else has imagined and flashed through our heads.

According to Guy Vanderhaeghe, author of The Englishman's Boy, "you can control a book - by rereading a chapter, rereading a paragraph, rereading a sentence. A book invites argument, invites reconsideration, invites thought. Like feeling, it simply is. The principle of a book is persuasion; the principle of a movie is revelation."

A book wants you to ponder and to form new thoughts and to discuss YOUR ideas with others. That is why books are so important, whether they are fiction or nonfiction.

Keep on writing. You, your books and your ideas are important.

Denise