You are what you read!?

In order to analyze, one must comprehend; in order to comprehend, one must relate to the subject or emotion invoked by the author. In "Reading: The Most Dangerous Game", an essay by Harold Broadkey, the obscurity of reading itself and it's effect on society and self are discussed. The work is poignantly guided by Broadkey, leading to introspective self evaluation, and consequently self actualization. Written in a playful banter, as one friend would speak to another -- allowing for the broad generalization that "we" might meet again, in a bookstore, to continue this discussion.
His observations that "writing always tends towards some type of moral stance, " and "Ignorance has come to mean a state of booklessness," are particularly relevant in our electronically-hyped and entertainment-saturated media environment. The adage that one should not choose a book by its cover is as ironic as the language, structure and ideology of this "uncultivated reader." The superficial influences shaping preference in reading material are intimately personal. The feel of the leather, the font, the book jacket, or the authors name may initially catch the eye; but one won't know whether ones tastes, beliefs, and yearning for comfort are satisfied until the object of ones desire has been consumed from cover to cover. Whether your sensibilities are evolved, mediocre, or distinctly low-brow, a myriad of genres are available. Hence the danger in writing and discussion of language. Intellect translates into power. Once captured and transmuted into written form, beliefs, reason, truth, and fiction become history.
There are no formal boundaries as to what can be written. You and you alone control what you read. The more you read, the more you analyze, the more you comprehend, and the more you understand yourself, your society, and your existential predicament

Artwork: The Bookworm