Maybe
the world is mapped and accounted for in the wrong way. Perhaps we haven’t adequately profiled the
planet the way it really needs to be.
Think
about it. All kinds of books of
statistics, demographics, and facts seek to sum up life in a neat way -- who we are
and what our world is -- but I think we are the undefined, the unquantifiable,
the unrecorded. It is that very image that we really need to formulate if we are
to adequately fix the world.
All
too often we look to data and formulas to craft a picture of things. We divide people by so many factors – gender
identity race, religion, sexual preferences, size, wealth, geography etc. There’s our health and genes. There’s the fact of being a dog owner or
having two siblings or being a vegan. If
you look at enough data points of our physical status, mental faculties, I.Q.,
history of behavior, and other factors, one can create a profile of you and
possibly predict your behaviors and views under certain circumstances. Marketers, sociologists, politicians, and psychologists depend on such predictability in order to cash-in, plan cities, save lives, or prevent
disasters – not to mention decide elections and other important events.
Can
we simply tell who someone is by the books he or she reads, assuming such data
could be accumulated in a single database?
Think
of all the sources you have for books:
·
Schools
·
Libraries
·
Purchase
from stores, Amazon, elsewhere
·
Borrow
from a friend
·
Steal
·
Find
·
Receive
as a gift
·
While
visiting a house or hotel
·
Free
copies handed to you or found online
Could
an accurate and complete list be kept?
If so, what would it say about that person?
Just
because one comes across a book doesn’t mean he reads it – fully or at all –
and just because he reads it doesn’t mean he agrees with all or any of it.
Does
the order or age in which you read matter?
What you read at age 15 as a school assignment is not the same as what
you select to read at that age. And if
you read a book and it’s only the tenth book you’ve read vs. your 300th,
will it impact you differently than if the order of what your read was
switched?
Still,
we will draw some conclusions about people based on what they read – and
especially about what they don’t read.
If your bookshelf is devoid of books on Christian heroes, horses,
knitting, slavery, or fishing, some conclusions can be made. And if you have read only 20 books by age 30
vs. 200, other conclusions can be made.
Still,
regardless of our book detective work, we must realize that the sampling is
incomplete, in part because many of us have not exposed ourselves to books we
may like, even love, in part because of money, convenience, ignorance,
prejudice, misinformation, and a hundred other reasons.
I
will say this: We are the books we read.
But it’s a temporary definition.
The minute you read another book, who we are changes. We are made better, smarter, and more by
reading another book. Who we become may end up being different from who we’ve
been or seem to be, and the books we read contribute a big piece to how we are
defined and how we define the world around us.
We
are only as good as the fantasies we contemplate, the experiences we have, the
wisdom we ascertain from others, and the environmental models we surround
ourselves with.
Read a book, and take a step closer to who you really are. But don’t always think you know someone by the books they read.
Read a book, and take a step closer to who you really are. But don’t always think you know someone by the books they read.
DON”T MISS THESE!!!
Should
all authors invest in book marketing or book publicity?
Do you
think like a book marketer?
How
should authors sell themselves?
The keys
to great book marketing
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Authors Can Capture The Media’s Attention
Big Marketing Lessons From My All-Time
Top 10 Blog Posts
Enjoy New 2018 Author Book Marketing
& PR Toolkit -- 7th annual edition just released
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