With the release of Pokemon Go about a month past, it is evident with more users than twitter, that social media and technology is becoming one of the biggest past times for today's generation. With all of the Pikachu fanatics out there, it is hard to not be excited about the game. Honestly, the game has done a lot for communities and getting together. However there is a force more powerful than this game that has stood the test of time as the greatest pastime of all.
Reading has been one of the biggest influences for millions if not billions of people throughout history. Wars, alliances, countries, friendships, and many more have all been forged through books and their impact on certain societies. The Crusades were fought over ideologies that resided in the bible, or from scripture written down. The Holy Roman Empire was founded on Catholicism, which was written down and had to be read to present it's ideas. The U.S. Constitution and other important documents were based off of the writings of John Locke and Socrates. Even Stephen King was influenced to write horror due to the works of Ray Bradbury, the father of modern science fiction. It all comes back to reading.
Books have also influenced my life as well in ways I could have never imagined. When I was in the 8th grade I was obsessed with 3 things. Astronomy, Music, and books. One day, my odyssey teacher brought us to the local library and we were all to grab books for the upcoming few weeks. Being an advanced reader at the time, I went straight for the adult section of the place that was like a candy store for me. I had finished the Ray Bradbury books they had the week prior so I decided to meander down that isle a bit further. I stopped at a title that peaked my interest called "Still Life With Crows" by Douglass Preston and Lincoln Child. I wasn't big into cop mysteries, but this one was different than any I had encountered prior to this point. For a quick synopsis, murders were happening in a small Kansas town where the bodies are sorely contorted and killed very brutally. Aloysius Pendergast is on vacation in this tiny town from the FBI, where he and a goth teen are investigating these murders. To prevent any spoilers, I will stop there. But there was so much class to Aloysius that I couldn't get enough of, which to my luck, he had a series. I excitedly read most of the books in about 3 months. At the time there were about twenty in the series. From that point on instead of pursuing Astronomy, I wanted to become a forensic scientist.
So to wrap things up, books are awesome tools that have inspired people throughout history, including me. Although everything in the Agent Pendergast Series was fiction, it filled me with determination to pursue my passion and major right now. So next time you are playing Pokemon Go, go to the library and check out a book. Who knows the adventures you can go on, or the path it can lead you down?
