| His Ideas 15 ~ Reading Coordinating |
December 17, 2020
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| One of his favorite movies was, 'The Shawshank Redemption'. It was an American movie starring Tim Robbins who played Andy, who was in a prison called Shawshank; Morgan Freeman played Red, who was Andy's friend in the prison. The original story was Stephen King's 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption'. Andy was wrongly imprisoned as a murderer with a long sentence. One time Andy said to Red, pointing at his own head that the prison could restrict his body but not his mind. He liked this scene, and the idea. A famous archaeologist said that the biggest reason why humans' ancestors were able to survive against stronger and smarter counterparts was that they had an imagination. They could cooperate to make bigger groups in order to fight, while their counterparts maintained their small groups of families and relatives. Maybe one ancestor told his group, "Working as a bigger group can make more profit." Of course, 'profit' wasn't in front of them, just an image, but the others could also see the same idea in their minds. Several months ago, a colleague from his former workplace opened a used book cafe. He went there almost once a week. While  drinking coffee and/or eating lunch, he took a couple of books and read their first 10 or 20 pages. If he liked one, he bought it at an appropriate price. After reading it at home, he sometimes sold it back to the shop. He thought this business model wasn't bad. Different from libraries, which require it in normally two weeks, he could read one book for as much time as he liked. Different from just used bookstores, he could read in a relaxing atmosphere. But most differently, the owner of the book cafe recommended various types of books that he liked. He liked to read from a young age. He was amazed that there were so many good books that he had never read from various authors. The more that he read different authors' books, the more that he felt the greatness of human beings' imagination. After the coronavirus pandemic started, people have been living in fear, have had to stay at home, feeling stressed and depressed. In such a time, we need imagination. And books can show us imagination's importance. [His Idea #15 : Reading Coordinating] He thought that it was key to know how to recommend good books suitably and efficiently, as there were some people who haven't gotten used to reading, and there are an uncountable number of books in the world. One: Book Recommendation Website: Librarians, bookshop workers, book worms, anybody who has insight and/or enthusiasm for books could recommend books on this site. The government might be able to give a subsidy to the site, as it could raise people's reading comprehension. Two: Used E-books Marketplace: E-books are convenient because you can download them, and read any books any time in your e-reading machine or on a tablet computer, etc. You can't sell your e-books to others, of course. In the cafe's case, when he sold back his books, he felt an expectation that the book would be handed to the next person and it would give that person the same type of satisfaction. Exaggeratedly speaking, this is a chain of knowledge and feelings. It can help form some sense of a bond between people as they have 'chosen' the same book. So, how about this? After purchasing an e-book and reading it, you can resell the book on an online market with a message of your impressions. You might be able to enjoy knowing how many people read 'your book'. |
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No.413
*redemption: 開放、贖罪
*imprison: 刑務所に入れる
*archaeologist: 考古学者
*counterpart: 同じ地位や立場、状況などの相手方
*book worm: 本の虫
*insight: 洞察力
*enthusiasm: 熱意
*comprehension: 理解力
*bond: 絆