Dangerous Reading

In response to “The 10 Greatest Self-Help Classics You’ve Never Heard Of” a number of people have asked for more book recommendations. While I’m sure I’ll offer more in the future, for now I thought I’d offer a suggestion that can dramatically change your life. And no, I am not kidding. If you have the guts to actually do this, there is no telling what kind of an impact it may have on your life. Here it is:

Read dangerous books. Not books that are about danger or books that others have deemed suspect. I’m talking about books that are dangerous to your current belief system.

Most people tend to only read books that “interest” them, that might “teach them something useful” or that compliment their current belief systems. The spiritual person reads spiritual books. The technical person reads technical books. The skeptical person reads skeptical books and on down the line.

There is nothing surprising about this until you consider that many of these people eventually reach a point of boredom. Life ceases to be exciting and becomes stale. And then they wonder why! The reason this happens rarely has anything to do with life; it has to do with the fact they’ve spent years nurturing and solidifying the same old thoughts they’ve always had. Yes, it is comforting to read books that confirm our current beliefs. But it is also a sure-fire way to shut down our minds and cut ourselves off from a larger sense of reality.

The answer is to throw an occasional wrench into our reading regimen by reading books that present opposing points of view, ideas we aren’t currently interested in or that may not sit well with our friends and family. These are often the books that will change our lives. Not the books that are “right up our alleys” but books that beckon us to go down darkened alleys.

In case you’re not buying this, consider the thrill we feel when we discover a talent or ability we didn’t know we had. We open our mouth one day and discover we can sing. We take an art class and discover we can paint. We face a crisis and discover we have strengths we never knew we had. The thrill of looking back and saying to ourselves, “I didn’t know I could do that” is tough to beat. But it’s nothing compared to encountering a strange new idea and saying to yourself, “I didn’t know I could believe that.”

While discovering a new ability can give us great joy in life, discovering a new belief can transform our life. And we aren’t likely to develop these new beliefs by rummaging through the same old ideas we’ve always had. We develop them by having the courage – and it does take courage – to reach beyond that which is comfortable and safe. We must reach out and entertain that which is dangerous.

Posted on Monday, July 18, 2005 at 09:14 AM

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(2) Reader Comments about Dangerous Reading

Deb says...

For instance? I personally like to jump off bridges....but I guess that wouldn’t qualify unless there was no water below? Or are you refering to the IDEA of jumping to certain death?

Posted on 09/03/2005 at 09:24 AM

TheKev says...