Books

I was reading a book yesterday, curled up in my favorite easy chair, and the thought struck me, how many people still read books today? It is a hectic, fast-paced world we live in today, with a million things happening all at once and time is always at a premium.

But books to me have always been a gateway to the fantasy world of the imagination. They give us all the power to travel through time, revisit pivotal battlefields like in the Civil or Revolutionary wars, to discover what it was like to live in medieval times, to share the lives and loves of people now long gone. The possibilities are endless.

But I am thinking that most people these days do not really read at all. They keep up on current events with the local news. Some of my friends are news junkies and have their TV permanently turned on to all news, all the time channels like CNN, FOX News, or MSNBC.

They receive the news of the world in carefully edited, tailored sound bites, and the broadcasts are of course slanted to the right-wing conservative or the left-wing liberal viewpoints. I used to be like that too but have slacked off lately. Watching the news all day long is too repetitious and depressing.

Of course, if you are THAT dedicated to the news and worry about every blessed thing that happens all over the world, you can also keep up every time you go online and check out the latest happenings. But this is not really reading for fun or entertainment. It is more like getting a daily or hourly injection of current events.

This constant barrage of daily mostly bad news just makes me edgy and nervous, and I yearn to return to a simpler, less stressful time through the magic of books. Although of course it was hectic enough at the time it happened, and just as real and meaningful to those involved.

Just as our present time is so very relevant to us. Time is a continuum, and our present-day now we take for granted will be our children’s past, their history.

But by reading a book about a certain time period, you gain an invaluable perspective on time and always know how everything turns out. With the added insider’s viewpoint of how it seemed to the people living their lives at that particular time.

What I am talking about is the sheer and total release from this current space and time, with all its cares and worries, and escaping like Alice through the looking glass into an alternate universe of infinite possibilities. I read for the pure pleasure of reading, to be able to go back to places and times that would otherwise be forever inaccessible to me.

Sometimes I read adventure stories of long-ago battles, of kings and queens, of brave mounted knights and archers and foot soldiers, clashing swords on a darkling plain in a battle that has no real ending. Because there is always another war, another faction fighting for political supremacy. But the true believers still lived and died by the results.

My favorite genre is historical fiction because then I can almost feel like a participant in the great events that have shaped our history and formed our modern world, or at least I can be the proverbial fly on the wall.

Strangely, most people hate reading history books, and I can understand that if it is just a dull recitation of dates and place names you are expected to memorize. Like it is regrettably taught in most schools.

This is a shame and explains why most people don’t like history and shy away from any mention of it. They don’t see the relevance of long ago, how events back then shaped and molded our present world.

But if you read historical fiction, it not only portrays actual historical events but also breathes life into the characters, making you really understand and feel what daily life must have been like under the surprisingly sophisticated governments of ancient Egypt, Greece, or Rome.

You can follow the development of modern Europe by visiting medieval England during the reign of King Henry VIII. Or his daughter, the original Queen Elizabeth, among the most historically significant female rulers of medieval times. “A Tale of Two Cities,” by Charles Dickens is an excellent insider’s portrayal of the frenzied madness of the French Revolution.

In more modern times I have always had a strong fascination for the Revolutionary and Civil wars, or WWI and WWII. What was it really like on the home front while the “Greatest Generation” fought overseas from once isolated Fortress America?

How did the mostly female American population exist back then on strict food rationing and always being urged to go on metal or newspaper or rubber tire drives? To be forced to raise their families virtually alone? Nearly every able-bodied male was drafted into the Armed Forces for 5 long years.

WWII especially was a demarcation point in woman’s liberation. This was where the seeds were planted for the sprouting of the feminist movement of the 1960s with such charismatic, articulate leaders as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan.

Because WWII also radically and permanently changed the landscape of the American labor force. Women were forced to discover the new world of work, before closed off to them as they were mainly relegated to the role of housewives and homemakers.

But change was in the air, as demonstrated by the iconic “Rosie the Riveter.” Women by necessity began working on assembly lines building ships and planes, or by working in munitions plants, or just plain working at many former male-dominated jobs.

Women worked out of sheer necessity, to put food on the table, and to make vital contributions to the war effort. They still also had to raise their families as well. WWII changed male/female relations in America forever.

I find all these facts fascinating and relevant to all of us now living in today’s world. They are not just some dusty, obscure collection of dates and place names. They are a living, breathing testament to the way we were. They are a bridge between the past and the present.

By accessing the world of books, by allowing yourself the luxury of escaping from the here and now, either through reading paperbacks, hardcover books, on a Kindle or tablet, you can free your mind to wander far and wide. We now have the luxury to visit places and times otherwise long gone and far away. Your mind can travel wherever it wants to.

I know time is precious and there are just not enough hours in the day for most people, but now more than ever before we have access to every time period that ever existed. To me, historical fiction is almost the same as science fiction, except that it is all based on fact. You might want to take some time, put away an hour or so every day or two, and escape from the here and now and discover these magical realms yourself.

One thing is sure, whether you choose to read or not, as the Spanish American author/philosopher George Santayana famously said:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”