The Lion's Pride Lion's Pride Volume 12 (Spring 2019) | Page 22

I Believe in Books
Terry J Harleman
I quite enjoy reading fictional novels and strongly believe that more
people should read, and this is why.
I believe in books; they mold our early imagination, teach us, and
remind us what has happened.
When I was a child, I did not like reading books; they seemed to
not click in my imagination the right way. They lacked a certain clarity
that I just could not grasp; it took my father to help me reach that
perspicuity. I loved the movie Eragon; however, one-day my father saw
my sister and me watching it. He said, “The movie is okay, but reading
the book will open your eyes to a new perspective.” After much
convincing and a bit of reluctance on my part, he handed me the
hardcover and just said, “enjoy.” After ten hours of reading, I learned
that a book has clarity I had never imagined. It had a much more vivid
perspective; books had their own movie to play for you. When I slept
that night, the scenes played out better than the movie ever could. It had
dancing, battles, and a fluid feel that I remember to this day.
While books have imagination, they include a lesson for anyone
and everyone to learn. English teachers use them for that specific
purpose. In 11 th English, there are books the whole class is to read and
find the very point of it, an example of this being Fahrenheit 451. The
book’s protagonist is a firefighter whose job is to destroy any books or
houses that may contain any form of novel. This was to limit what the