Does what a person read have a rather noteworthy impact on them?

Average_Psycho said:
...Being smart and knowing what you're doing is cool, not skipping classes and losing your future...
Click to expand...

Sorry to go off topic, but as someone who's made the same mistake, I think I should warn you about where that line of thinking leads.

I used to think the same way, I'd spend all my time studying instead of learning the basic social skills one needs to interact with others...

(That's what "coolness" is all about, after all: It's a critical tool for social positioning)

...I'd alway put my best effort into my schoolwork, even though I could've been learning ten times faster if I'd skipped class and studied on my own. And I'd chide my "cool" classmates for throwing their futures away.

Now, I'm a dirt-poor martial arts instructor with a genious IQ and an extensive knowlege of physics, biology, and psychology that only serves to illuminate for me exactly how badly I screwed myself.

Modern society doesn't work on logic, it works on a combination of basic pack-animal instincts and a stratified, ant-like social-dynamic. We're taught that education is the way to success because keeping ourselves in school keeps us out of the workforce and therefore out of competition with the older generation.

In fact, our social structure is designed so that the higher social positions become increasingly fewer in number as you go up the scale.

As such, the high paying jobs and great lives we expect to get after graduating from college are in limited supply, and only a few (usually those who slacked from their studies a bit to polish their social skills) will actually get them.

The rest of us get to flip burgers and sweep streets with the class-ditchers we looked down on.

Just a freindly warning.
 
I agree with Reiku that studying in school doesn't guarantee your future. I was a good student, and I'm now in a dead-end job. But, career is the least of my concerns. Studying hard at school gave me the skills I need for independent learning, and having a low-pressure job means I have the time to devote to my own pursuits. I don't have much money, but I have enough to live on, and anything else people spend money on is mainly unnecessary anyway. So my advice would be, stick at it at school, but remember that there is more to life than career.
 
It's a Nature vs. Nurture thing. I think the things we're expossed to can impact us, move us, change us but I also think there are basic personality traits that you'll have regardless of what the f**k you read. Even when in church I was still fasiniated with the macraba and all the dark, gritty, and ugly sides of humanity. That was not something that I came to love through reading but something I have always loved and found greatly interesting. Once out of the church and given the chance to read what I wanted on the matter it did deepen my interest but it didn't create it. I think books can nurture things that are already there but I don't believe that, for the most part, they make them.
 
I know that. I know friends and family who have done very well in school, but now have very unhappy jobs. I don't enjoy socializing, but I do anyways, because I know that it will help me out in the long run. I already have many contacts that can help me with future jobs/careers.

Thank you for the warning, though I don't need it....

I never said that they would make new traits to a personality, but it makes sense that they can nurture the traits.
 
As regards the studying thing, I think you just have to go with whatever suits your personality. I know it's possible to make mistakes of course - my Dad did exactly that; a really intelligent person who got no qualifications because he hardly ever went to school, and ended up in a job that he found so boring. He would warn me, as parents do, not to make the same mistake, but in the end when people get to their teen age, well, you make your own decisions and you have to live with the consequences. I was quite lucky in that I was able to have the best of both worlds, getting the grades without looking as though I was studying! :blush:

About reading... (I've been trying to do more reading lately, but not been too successful due to the old enemy, time... :( )... one of my friends had a saying that neatly summed it up for me: "Rubbish in, rubbish out". :giggle:

IMO you're bound to get influenced a bit by what you read; I suppose the exact amount depends on the condition of your own mind already. :clueless:
 
That shouldn't be too difficult... I try to keep my options varied and the like... Mistakes are kind of inevitable, bbut you can learn from them too. My dad needed glasses since he was really young, and he didn't get them because he was too stubborn, so he didn't graduate high school with good marks, and he couldn't go to university/college... I know I need glasses, and my eyes are getting worse, so I see my optometrist every year to check up on my eyes. I think I might be getting a perscription this fall... I don't want my education to go down the drain, so I'm trying to do all that I can so that my parents' money isn't wasted. Eventhough I hate french, I try hard because it affects my average... Health and gym, I can't do much about because my teacher hates me :okashii: and My cores are doing fantastic, I'm really proud of my marks.

That's an interesting saying. :giggle: *is reminded of Bamfield*

That definitely makes sense, you will be influenced, even if only a little, and sometimes it can be more than a little.
 
Do you mean fiction or non-fiction books? If you mean non-fiction books then alot of textbooks I've studied have had an impact on me, as too has the dictionary, which completely revolutionised the way I spelt.

Nietzsche had a rather noteworthy impact on Hitler I believe.
 
Average_Psycho said:
Alright... not sure how far I will get with this... but anyways...
Depending on what a person's reading material is, will they be afftected from such material as to alter their opinion, or personality?
I myself enjoy very long, wordy, and dark novels. My favourite authors are Anne Rice and Stephen King, and I'm not sure if what I read is creating an impact on how I live my life... Does anyone else have anything they would wish to add/share/elaborate?
Click to expand...


my mother reads anne rice has every single book and is writing one of her own i've never noticed her acting any diffrently at all haha of course my whole family is odd but i've never noticed a change in personality she's gotten nicer i mean if that counts:p
 
Parker said:
Do you mean fiction or non-fiction books? If you mean non-fiction books then alot of textbooks I've studied have had an impact on me, as too has the dictionary, which completely revolutionised the way I spelt.
Nietzsche had a rather noteworthy impact on Hitler I believe.
Click to expand...

Well, it could be both... actually. Either fiction or non-fiction... or factual based fiction... but really, it all works. I love to read... and I want to have more reading material... I can't get enough XD

MrsAmberface said:
my mother reads anne rice has every single book and is writing one of her own i've never noticed her acting any diffrently at all haha of course my whole family is odd but i've never noticed a change in personality she's gotten nicer i mean if that counts:p
Click to expand...

I think that could count... it might have made an impact on her in a way that you do not notice... It could be a very subtle impact, and maybe she might not even be showing it through body language or speech... But that's just my opinion... that she might be hiding it... for some reason...
 
I'm a moody, and anguished teenager yet I read books like The Grean Hills of Eath by Heinlein, The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, A Clockwork Orange by Burgess, Notes from the Underground and the Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. I read books on world mythology, fan fictions based off of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Dozens of manga, and so forht. My taste in books isn't really set in one path. You may pick up ideas from books that could alter your personality but nothing huge.
 
At your age, I really like Mishima Yukio's Sun and Steel. Anything by Musashi is also good or Funakoshi Gichin's Biography. Tanizaki Junichiro's Some prefer Nettles was good too. Ursula Leguin's The Disposessed or Lathe of Heaven was good. My boys enjoyed the Dune series as did my wife. My mother recommends John LeCarre.
 
I just finished a beautiful book called Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel. It is a biography of both Galileo and his elder daughter, who was a nun. As well as giving some details on Galileo's trial and imprisonment that were enlightening, it showed what a wonderful relationship these two had, told mostly through Suor Maria Celeste's letters to her father. I could relate to it as I am very close to my own dad. I can still feel tears welling up in my eyes just thinking about how Galileo must have felt when she died suddenly at the age of only 33. :(
 
First of all, I'm sorry I haven't been on very much at all lately, I've been rather irritated with Jref (mostly cause of how over-run the Jpop forums have become) and have been very busy with school and other school-related issues.

Thor said:
I'm a moody, and anguished teenager yet I read books like The Grean Hills of Eath by Heinlein, The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, A Clockwork Orange by Burgess, Notes from the Underground and the Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. I read books on world mythology, fan fictions based off of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Dozens of manga, and so forht. My taste in books isn't really set in one path. You may pick up ideas from books that could alter your personality but nothing huge.
Click to expand...

Wow... that's quite a list... *writes everything down on a piece of paper to go book-hunting for later* I actually read manga, fanfictions and books other than those written by Anne Rice and Stephen King. I've actually read To Kill A Mocking Bird by _______ some time last year, and some fictional books on young-ish Chinese girls, and some other random things. Of course, I've read a bit of LOTR and Harry Potter and a few autogiographical works as well. So my reading selection isn't as 'closed' as I may have made it seem earlier.

sabro said:
At your age, I really like Mishima Yukio's Sun and Steel. Anything by Musashi is also good or Funakoshi Gichin's Biography. Tanizaki Junichiro's Some prefer Nettles was good too. Ursula Leguin's The Disposessed or Lathe of Heaven was good. My boys enjoyed the Dune series as did my wife. My mother recommends John LeCarre.
Click to expand...

Thank you for those authors and titles, I shall look into all of these books as soon as I can. Which isn't soon enough for me. *is a very avid reader*

Tsuyoiko said:
I just finished a beautiful book called Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel. It is a biography of both Galileo and his elder daughter, who was a nun. As well as giving some details on Galileo's trial and imprisonment that were enlightening, it showed what a wonderful relationship these two had, told mostly through Suor Maria Celeste's letters to her father. I could relate to it as I am very close to my own dad. I can still feel tears welling up in my eyes just thinking about how Galileo must have felt when she died suddenly at the age of only 33.
Click to expand...

I must admit, I am not very close with my father, but I have suspected some reasons as to why this is. Anyways... that's amazing that a book can have that much of an effect on you. I'm not saying of course, that books can't, because I know for a fact that they do, it's just that it has not happened to me often and I don't know of anyone else who has been so emotionally 'moved' by what they had read.
 
learning new things is the key to life. and if you learn well by reading lots then i guess it would be. I myself dont read alot...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top