It could be my experience in customer service that has inspired me to write this post, however, this is something I’ve always believed:
Books are better than people.
Don’t believe me? Listen…
Books are always available. If you are up in the middle of the night, you can just roll over and pick it up. A book won’t care that it’s late. Try doing that with a human. Conversely, if you want to put the book down and come back to it later in a few weeks/months/years, the book won’t be offended. It will be more than happy to let you enjoy its wordy-goodness some other time.
You don’t have to make small talk with a book. A book does all the talking for you. That’s literally it’s job. You just comb over the pages with your eyes and let the words transport you to another time and place. There is no horrifying pause as it waits for you to comment on something it’s said, or exchange vapid pleasantries. It’s so undemanding.
It’s portable. If you have a small bag, the sky is the limit. You can take them on your commute to work, to a party, to your grandparent’s house, to your backyard, on vacation. Taking a human everywhere you go is just impractical. And why would you want to? They make too much noise.
If it annoys you, you can get rid of it. Unlike humans, if a book annoys you, you can simply dispose of it. You can force it on your enemies. You can write a strongly-worded blog post. You can leave it in someone’s mailbox. You can light it on fire and burry it in the woods. All without fear of receiving a lawsuit.
There are many wonderful books to read. There are so many imaginative, energizing, inspirational, magical, excellent, titillating, colorful books to read. Somewhere out there is a book about any subject you could possibly imagine. You could spend hours– days even–exploring a library and reading and never want for anything besides food.
People? Nah. I think there are, like, three wonderful people in the world and all of them are dogs.
Books are free (at the library). Want to go to the movies? Money. Want to catch up with a friend at the coffee shop? Money. Want to entertain yourself for hours by reading the latest best-seller? Library. Boom. Take that, other humans.
Happy reading!
