What we read leaves a trace, just like what we eat has an effect, no matter how small or big. If you read propaganda intended for ill purpose, expect to bend to its ears, even just a little. Yet, all the positive and heart-warming or enjoyable content sticks better. We embrace it with ease. We will it to be a permeating presence in our soul. And reading cleanses the soul of clogged up muck. It helps us switch off and relax. It is a form of entertainment that doesn’t actually require batteries.

Thinking back to what I’ve read and I could not quite quote or remember lines. However, I do recall the warmth, the action, and many feelings. I treasure some authors and titles far above others. I don’t recall which book or author was championed with medals or prizes. I do know that I often hunted the author’s works down.

Each style of writing offers a pattern to follow, emotions to be kicked our of their slumber, things to explore, or an opportunity to add meat to the bones of my knowledge. Perhaps even reading a Trip Advisor review may offer an opportunity to cross borders that I cannot physically transcend. Will I discover, uncover, or reveal these new pathways without a book?

Books are like passports to the forbidden cities. A visa without application. They open the world, even if it is imagined through the words or pictures of others. Michael Palin has transported me to a whole list of countries, yet I’ve never watched his television adaptations or accompanied him on a flight. J.R.R. Tolkien has whizzed me off to many lands – some corrupted by move interpretations. Those flicks just give me an excuse to pick up the pages and reimagine on demand. That’s a gift to rediscover and enjoy the texts again.

If wisdom is acquired by experience and time, then books are a source of data for the mind’s visual map and developments.