As a schoolchild, my classmates and I were instructed NOT to write in our books. This was so we could turn in our books at the end of the year, and the books would be in good shape for the next set of students. Fair enough. Yet, this trained system built a personal resistance towards books. The books weren’t to be engaged with – they were to be feared. They weren’t my friends. They were part of the machine – school. I couldn’t “play” with them, they weren’t mine, they were only with me for a short time. I didn’t own them; they were borrowed.

How did this affect me?

Out of school, I didn’t read much on my own, besides Pro Wrestling magazines, of course. In those, I had the freedom, at least, to cut out some pictures to make collages of the guys beating each other up. These magazines were MINE. Meanwhile, real books, fiction, non-fiction, paperback, hardcover…these books were foreign objects. I couldn’t, or chose not to, get over my fear and my distance from books.

I didn’t write in them. No pencil marks. God forbid a pen mark, and certainly not highlighters. The books were to remain “clean” in case “someone else” would eventually read them.

I didn’t write in a book until last year when Napolean Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich gave me permission to do so. In fact, it was an order. I couldn’t believe it! It was a challenge…and then, I did it. And imagine that, I didn’t get “in trouble”.

Write in your books. They are YOURS.

Yesterday, I read passages of the books Zen and the Art of Making a Living by Laurence G. Boldt, The Psychology of Screenwriting, and 30 Second Philosophies. I recommend these books but, more to the point, read something – even a Pro Wrestling magazine.

Reblogged from original post on http://www.Macremi.com.