top of page
Search

Books.

Updated: Aug 28, 2020

Books are a manifestation of redemption; books grant the readers their desired escape from

reality. However, it is not the story that captivates the mind, but the carefully selected words.

Their sly, unnoticeable, and influential nature holds the mind a prisoner for as long as the eye

glances upon them. One may often notice the book, the story, the character, but only an

exceptional few notice the words. Whereas the words are the soul of the book, and in fact it’s

most influential part. We adamantly ignore the influence words have over us. Being an avid

reader, I have had countless opportunities to study the operation of particular words in

different manners. Words and authors beguile me, for they are the masters of not only their

work, but also the masters of the emotional roller coaster their readers’ experience. One

sentence has the power of altering a man’s perception.


One may be under the false pretense that words have no influence over our minds; one may

even believe that the influence of a word can never be overlooked, what they do not realize

is, just about how wrong they are. An example of the influence of a word on the mind can be

seen through a commonly used word: ‘magic’. For every living, breathing person on this

planet, the definition of magic is perceived differently – thus, having a different influence on

each person. The word magic creates an intense emotional reaction for most people and quite unnoticeably compels us to reveal our innermost adoration of a certain object, person, place, thing, and-or experience.


To understand the functioning of the word magic and its influence better, I asked a few of my

friends to answer a simple question: “What does magic mean to you, or how would you

define magic?”


I received a whole range of varying answers. To list a few: “Something unreal to the mind,

but convincing to the eye // a feeling or an emotion.”, “It’s the little things that people do for

you”, “Love is magical”, “Semi abstract- Little things that happen that surprise you,

revelation of secrets”, “Harry Potter and everything that it has taught me.”, “Transcends

human understanding”, and “football”. What I find intriguing about these responses is the

fact that I would successfully be able to identify the person behind each response. Be it a

word, or two sentences, each of the responses are unique to a singular person. Without

intending to, every answer unmasks a large percent of their character or personality – making

them easily identifiable. This is the evidence of the power of influence words have over us.

My best friend was a victim towards this unnoticed influence of words. She is secretly antisocial.


One day, she told me that no matter how big of a gesture someone makes; she will

always, always appreciate the little things more. She defined magic as ‘the little things people

do for her’. While attempting to define what a random word means to her, she unknowingly

let off a long kept secret – a secret only a selected few have the chance of knowing. This

proves that words influence our thought process without us realizing. Had she known that the

word ‘magic’ compels her to think of the thing that she has a deep admiration for rather than

a surreal person, place or experience, she would have chosen to not answer, or answer

differently.


Thus, I believe that no word in the dictionary should be left unnoticed. Words are created to

influence us, and their influence deserves to be noticed. It is the nature of words to exploit

our minds and trick us into submitting ourselves to the manipulative characteristics of

language. Man must always fear books and what is inside them, for words have the power to

change us.


#books #reading #love #booksaremagic

28 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page