Tell Me What Your Books Are and I'll Tell You Who You Are

Sounds familiar? Yes, it is a just a variation of the saying "Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are." Just as we can tell much about a person by the friends he's going out with, I strongly believe that we can also tell much about a person by checking out the books or written articles he's reading. Let me give examples...

When you see a student in white uniform reading a book entitled "The Fundamentals of Nursing," most likely he's a nursing student, right? If you see a student reading the book "The Fundamentals of Accounting," you may give a safe guess that he's taking up Accountancy. If you see a young lady reading a romance novel, wouldn't you think she's the romantic type? And if you see a middle-aged man sitting by the bench, holding a Bible in his hand, what would you think of him? And how about a young man with a collection of Playboy magazines?

We can tell much about a person by the books he’s reading. Read it again. Books. It’s in the plural form. Because someone who is reading the Bible may not be religious after all. Maybe he’s just reading it because he’s bored and he’s got nothing else to entertain himself with while waiting for his wife. But if you go to his house and you see in his shelves a lot of books on religion, then maybe he’s really a man of faith. Meanwhile, a student reading "The Fundamentals of Accounting" may not be an accounting student. Engineering and Management students also read the said book as the subject is also a part of their curriculum. But if aside from "The Fundamentals of Accounting" book the student is reading, he also has with him “Managerial Accounting” and “Cost Accounting” books, he’s really an accounting student then.

Our collection of books tells much about us. It is because we tend to read most about topics that pique our interest. We won’t be wasting our time reading books that don’t interest us, or those that we don’t need to read. And of course, we also won’t invest our pennies on books that we have nothing to do about.

So let me ask, what books are on your shelf?

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‎"For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6