Useless Information or the Keys to the World?
I have an abnormal attraction to books that explore things that are unfamiliar to me. The Amish books that lined my shelves in my early twenties caused my friends a good laugh, but hey – if anyone ever had a question about the Amish, I was the girl to call. Next came Hasidic Jews, and, after moving to LA and learning (and by learning I mean hearing about but not learning one damn thing) about a religion called Scientology, I went out and bought their bestseller. This latter book caused members of my family to actually sit me down to make sure I wasn’t planning on hopping over to the Celebrity Centre to become besties with Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
Eventually, I moved out of religion and onto people. The year I graduated from college, Oprah had an author on her show who was transgender. Up to that point in my life, not only had I not thought about it, but I’d also not realized that some people felt trapped in a body that didn’t match how they felt on the inside. After sincerely trying to imagine what it would feel like to wake up in a man’s body (being that I’m a woman and very much relate to being one) and almost giving myself a panic attack, I trekked to the bookstore to do some more research and look at the author’s book. (Please note: this topic was not as widely talked about a decade ago as it is now, there are many books to be read about it today –fewer were available back then.) A whole new world (and education) opened up to me that day – and I was able to shed some previous juvenile prejudices that should have no place in this world (much less high school and college campuses, where they were being developed and nurtured, and probably hurting the most vulnerable people).
Since then, there have been many, many other books that I’ve gravitated toward because they teach me things otherwise alien to me. Interestingly, I don’t tend to gravitate toward people just because they are different than I am. (I don’t dislike people who are different, I just don’t happen to seek them out like I actively do these books.) After giving this some thought, I discovered something about myself: there is a significant part of me that not only like books more than people, but is able to learn from books better than from conversations. Why?
- Books will teach you something without asking you questions about why you want to learn it.
- Books don’t make fun of you if you have to look up words or want to take a break from “the conversation” to do a little research.
- Books go away when you’ve reached your limit on what you can hear for the day.