"Fire" to the books

My sister travelled to the USA 2 months ago to a meeting in Atlanta. So my family and I took the opportunity to buy some things on Amazon and ask the shipping to my sis’s hotel. I bought little and cheap things but my aunt did a really smart purchase. She invested on a “Kindle Fire”.

At first I considered that a kindle was almost unuseful for a 54 years old lady but as soon as the tablet was in her hands, she did her best to learn how to use it. After 2 or 3 weeks she already knew how to buy books and how to check her e-mail from the famous “kindle” I was amazed and I was actually happy for her and her evolution on technology. My little 7 years old nephew that lives with her had to read a book for school and asked me if the book was on the kindle because he didn’t like to read from the paper. It was incredible that a 7 years old boy asked me something like that.  And I realized that MAYBE when my nephew Vicente is 23 years old like me, the printed book won’t even exist and it will be just a piece of collection or something like that.

I am wondering if that’s good or bad for our society, to evolve to an each day more technologized world where essential things in life will be lost year after year and something as simple as a notebook or a book will be part of the past of our lives to leave the machines rule us.

What the eyes read, the mind knows.

   Since old times, words were written in clay tablets, scrolls, and papyrus until the printing press was invented. How wonderful this creation was! Just imagine having simply thoughts, feelings, emotions, experiences, and reflections in barren leaves! Then, little by little books were written, and published; people read, opened their minds, and could get smarter every single day. Nowadays, people enjoy having a journey through stories; people enjoy seeing what they have inside through reading books, because they are like mirrors… You interpret things according to your thoughts, your life.

   Reading enriches people’s lives; enriches the world around us as well. Books enable us to participate in the world around learning about other cultures, places, societies, ways of thinking, lessons, experiences, travels; in fact, books enable us to be where we have never been, to see what we have never seen, to explore what we have never explored before. They encourage to go beyond our mind without any fear... Just imagination is involved in them!  

   This activity brings a lot of benefits. Firstly, it provides an escape from day to day. It is like taking a break, to be transported in another world. Here, there are no boundaries. Secondly, the beauty of the language has the ability to calm and relax us. Lastly, if you read a book, it will help your health. It relieves the stress, because it takes your mind off your problems - like a therapy - and worries. 

   Definitely, reading is like exercising: mental and physical benefits flow from a regular routine. I always remember what someone said: "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." So, where would we be without books? How could we let our imagination flow if books didn't exist?

Here you have a picture that reflects what I wrote: