3 Pitfalls for The Aspiring Literary

Woe to the man who thinks that reading will automatically make him wise. Perhaps it might accelerate his wit and enhance his literacy, but these ingredients, when stirred do not churn out wisdom. They are merely technical tools and do not command the cognition. It is rather the man himself who generates wisdom when he formulates his own thoughts, judgements, theories, and opinions. And when he reads, he can hold up the words to the light of his understanding, thus evaluating the wisdom of great minds against or aside his own.

Woe to the man who thinks that he is wise after he reads a book, for if this is his reaction, his eyes have not been opened to the vast universe literacy should make clear. Like the experience of early astrologers, trying to comprehend the universe with puny tools and hampered theories, is the man who after reading his single book, thinks he has unraveled every mystery; and like the astrologer, this man should advance his discipline by inventing new tools and accelerating new theories, or rather, reading further books and revising old opinions.

Woe to the man who has a tasteless pallet, for when he reads he fails to recognize the expense of reading a lesser book over that of a greater. To him, all books have equal value. Unfortunately, books are not all made the same. When reading, differentiate between books, for, some books will strangle and some will maim, other books are inane, while some books are mildly amusing. Reading matters not, when watching television suddenly becomes the more intelligent option.