Oh my books!

Phew! Just cleared loads of spider webs from our bookshelves, and of course, from this blog… (words of opening for a new blog post always sounds like this, huh?)

And that’s when I come to realize that we own huge amount of books and magazines, all collecting dust and rotting away on the shelves. What a waste! The vast knowledge these books contained were not assimilated at all into our minds and souls! What’s the use of thousands of printed materials and thick books when we are not able to apply or even garner anything from any of them?!

When we are exposed to a fact, we memorise it when we deem it necessary, thus that information becomes a short-term knowledge. But this info is something which we do not quite fully grasp, and to retain it in our brains we have to keep repeating or memorising it. (Yeah…Sounds a lot like memorising definitions of biology terms ). Gradually, we find situations in which we can actively and appropriately apply that piece of knowledge, now this is called wisdom. However, if a learned fact is left in the mind untouched, not being retrieved for churning or digesting or applying, it disappears!

Now I wonder how many books of mine faced this same fate of just being a display item on the shelf! I know it may not be easy to put to practice everything we read, but it is good to remember that we will never own the knowledge in a book if no effort on our part is made to remember and apply it in our everyday lives.

Actually, I believe learning gets easier once real life applications are involved! This is a new challenge for myself too, especially in learning examination subjects like Biology, Economics, Chemistry… … I remember applying the pupil reflex when going in and out of my house, much to the annoyance of my roommie, because I kept telling her what the sudden brightness or darkness is doing to my pupils. That’s the way I am able to learn and remember at the same time!

Come on, let’s make the best out of the books we have and the Ringgits we’ve spent!