Why the World Needs Another Good Book, Part 2

In the previous post, we considered two major reasons why the world needs another good book. We looked at how books encourage us to slow down and really pay attention to the world around us. We also saw how they enable us to “see” the world through different lenses than we might normally be accustomed to.

In this post, we’ll take a brief look at how books can inspire and warn us. But first, let’s think for a minute about how and why books can hold so much power over our minds and emotions. How is it that book characters can actually shape our own character and habits?

A Powerful Exchange

A well-written book offers an immersive experience like no other. Think about it: a movie shows only carefully-edited footage, seen from particular angles of the camera. We see what the filmmaker wants us to see. Even 4-D theaters and virtual reality headsets can only offer pre-filmed, pre-crafted possibilities.

A book, on the other hand, works more like a dialogue between author and reader. The author artfully describes a character or scene, but it’s up to your own imagination to make those people and places “visible”. The extra effort involved in reading leads to deeper, more fulfilling engagement. It’s the difference between paging through a cookbook and making the recipe yourself. That glossy picture of a blackberry tart might grab your immediate attention. But it can hardly compare with the sensory experience of pressing cool dough into a pan, piling on a sugar-tossed mound of fragrant berries…and taking that first delicious bite.

Because you’ve put more in, you get more out.

Novels are especially good at helping you get inside a character’s skin. They’re usually written from “deep” third person perspective, filtering every outward experience through the mind of one or more characters. Some novelists even write from the first person (“I”) perspective: you, the reader, actually “become” the hero, reading every sentence through the lens of “me” and “my”. Young adult fiction–especially contemporary and dystopian–frequently takes this angle, but the technique has been around awhile: think Pilgrim’s Progress, Robinson Crusoe, or Moby Dick.

This kind of engagement can create a powerful bond between reader and character. In an almost magical exchange, our heroes’ experiences enter our memories, and become an inseparable part of us. And if we’re wise, we’ll learn from them.

Which leads me to this post’s reasons why the world needs another good book. Or, we might just as well say, why you and I need another good book.

An Invitation

Even as a child, I remember being in awe of the effect a well-written book could have on me. When I was wrapped up in a great story like The Voyage of the Dawn Treader or Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, I’d find myself thinking and talking like my favorite characters for the whole rest of the day. I’ll still catch myself doing the same thing now–only it’s more inside my head (I’d probably get some odd stares if I started conversing like a Dickens character).

Even if you’re not temporarily adopting the persona of your favorite heroes, there’s still plenty you can learn from them. Whenever I read Anne of Green Gables, I can’t help but start connecting more imaginatively with my surroundings. I become much more aware of the simple beauty around me; sunsets, flowers and forests all take on greater significance. Shannon Hale’s Forest Born, one of my favorite recent reads, challenged me to think wisely about how I use my words. I found myself strongly identifying with the heroine, Rinna, who is in awe of her more “gifted” friends, and terribly afraid of letting down the people she loves. She must learn to use her own gift of words to build up those around her in a spirit of love, not fear. Her story, though imagined, proved a great encouragement to me.

Even fictional characters can inspire us to live more nobly in the “real world.”

A Warning

Good books are equally valuable in showing us how not to be. They show us the disastrous effects of poor choices and harmful tendencies. They warn us of who we could become, and reveal the end results of the paths we may be following.

Sometimes, these warnings can be quite chilling. In Moby Dick, Herman Melville paints a grim portrait of Captain Ahab, a man consumed by his desire for revenge. Heedless of every warning, Ahab hurtles towards his own death, dragging his crew down with him in his selfish pride. In Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga, the willingness of several characters to listen to the enemy’s lies results in terrible transformations that are only overcome by tremendous sacrifice.

Other authors present their counsel more gently, but no less memorably. Anne Shirley’s vanity and gullible nature leave her with temporarily green hair. And J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books are full of witty caricatures of vice who receive poetic justice. Gilderoy Lockhart thinks only of his personal appearance…and in the end, that’s all he’s left with. Dolores Umbridge is a honey-tongued tyrant who terrorizes everyone around her to maintain control…till she ends up terrified and powerless.

So now, I’m curious: what are some ways that you’ve been personally impacted by a good book? What literary characters have warned or inspired you?