2008 Woodie Awards
Stop tossing your books
Sara Morehouse
Issue date: 2/20/07
Last Updated: 8/9/07
I have stood in that line and read every single greeting card. I have lost many bids to people more desperate or less stingy than I.
And I have traded and borrowed and given textbooks as wedding gifts with the best of them. I am cursing the system under my breath with all of you, but I think that we need to save up, dish out the green, quit whining and invest in the future.
In his book, "An Experiment in Criticism," C.S. Lewis goes as far as saying that people who don't read and re-read their literature well are not to be called true readers at all. He said that these people remove the value from a book after it has served its initial purpose; "it was for them dead, like a burnt-out match, an old railway ticket, or yesterday's paper; they had already used it."
His point brings up a rather enlightened idea … Let's sit down and read our books again! (Or for some, the first time.) There is so much we are missing and wasting money on by not repeating what we claim to have "learned" in class.
Now, I'm not saying that every math exercise in your Calc III book should be redone, but a quick review never hurt anyone. (Well, it might hurt me to look at Calc III, which is why I didn't get into those types of majors in the first place.) Your Core books for example: "How the Irish Saved Civilization," "Antigone," "Shantung Compound." - all are great literature, and worth the re-read. Just imagine how fun it would be to simply read the book and not have a test or a paper looming over your shoulder.
I'm not saying that I have completely nailed the philosophy of revisiting all my acquired works; there are books on my shelf that I refuse to read again and would love to sell to you. (Brand spankin' new Introduction to Psychology book anyone?)
But I am trying to partake in the full value of my many manuscripts and I encourage you to try, too.
Maybe your textbook will become a family heirloom someday. And whether that be a sophisticated, yet weathered copy of "Beowulf" or clunky economics texts that serve as building blocks for the grand kids, perhaps you can think back and say that you learned something between those pages.
And I have traded and borrowed and given textbooks as wedding gifts with the best of them. I am cursing the system under my breath with all of you, but I think that we need to save up, dish out the green, quit whining and invest in the future.
In his book, "An Experiment in Criticism," C.S. Lewis goes as far as saying that people who don't read and re-read their literature well are not to be called true readers at all. He said that these people remove the value from a book after it has served its initial purpose; "it was for them dead, like a burnt-out match, an old railway ticket, or yesterday's paper; they had already used it."
His point brings up a rather enlightened idea … Let's sit down and read our books again! (Or for some, the first time.) There is so much we are missing and wasting money on by not repeating what we claim to have "learned" in class.
Now, I'm not saying that every math exercise in your Calc III book should be redone, but a quick review never hurt anyone. (Well, it might hurt me to look at Calc III, which is why I didn't get into those types of majors in the first place.) Your Core books for example: "How the Irish Saved Civilization," "Antigone," "Shantung Compound." - all are great literature, and worth the re-read. Just imagine how fun it would be to simply read the book and not have a test or a paper looming over your shoulder.
I'm not saying that I have completely nailed the philosophy of revisiting all my acquired works; there are books on my shelf that I refuse to read again and would love to sell to you. (Brand spankin' new Introduction to Psychology book anyone?)
But I am trying to partake in the full value of my many manuscripts and I encourage you to try, too.
Maybe your textbook will become a family heirloom someday. And whether that be a sophisticated, yet weathered copy of "Beowulf" or clunky economics texts that serve as building blocks for the grand kids, perhaps you can think back and say that you learned something between those pages.
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