On Reading and the new Hype

A year ago I came across a 13-year-old boy in Diwan holding a book by Terry Goodkind (if you don’t know him, he’s an author of the fantasy genre) who was approached by a ‘fellow reader’ in his 20s, claiming that the boy should read ‘Lord of the Rings’ or try someone higher on the bestseller list like Dan Brown. The boy replied with this: “I hate Dan Brown, and do you even know who wrote Lord of the Rings?” The older one couldn’t reply, walking away with a frown, and the little boy had the biggest smile on his face I have ever seen. I have never respected a 13-year-old more.

His comment got me thinking on how we, as Egyptians, are prone to a disease called ‘Follow-the-herd’ syndrome. We do whatever everyone else is doing, whatever is currently cool, or whatever will get us recognized. We praise who everyone else praises, we love whatever everyone else loves, and we refrain from having our own opinion that might get us shot in broad daylight. Reading has become one of those trends, and it’s incredibly noticeable when everyone seems to be reading the same books by the same authors, and acting all sophisticated about it, forgetting that the world doesn’t revolve around authors like Dan Brown and Paolo Coehlo.

When you think of Dan Brown, he’s an author who had a great idea, which everyone knows wasn’t his to start with, and knew how to surround it with a decent enough story. But, when it comes to writing, his words are like nails on a chalkboard, with over-explanations, hardly any back-story, and a less than poor attempt at suspense. And Paolo Coelho? Great guy, simple enough stories to follow, but is nothing when compared with Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera or Fyodor Dostoyevsky (just to name a few). It makes you wonder if people are reading now because it’s the new hype, or because they actually appreciate the words that emanate from the modern scholars who spent years of their lives perfecting a craft most of us take for granted. And if they really are doing it for the sake of reading, why is it limited to the few authors that everyone else is supposedly enjoying and claiming as inspirations?

So read…please, read! And don’t just do it because everyone else is or because it somehow makes you look more sophisticated (although, admittedly, it does look sexy). Do it because of the realm the author takes you to; the immense world of imagination and the colorful tapestries of words that enchant. Let your mind roam wild and free. Tolkien was a genius and the first of his kind, but don’t be scared to pick up Terry Pratchett, Terry Brooks or Robert Jordan. Forget Dan Brown and read Michael Crichton, James Patterson or even Dean Koontz. Appreciate J.K.Rowling, but don’t ignore C.S.Lewis. Hell, even a Stephen King fanatic like me will try Dougles Clegg, Anne Rice or Peter Straub for a change.

So read!

Read for the sake of imagination.

Read for the magic of the words.