If you find no library card in your wallet or purse you are not a self-learner. You are at best a dilettante, a dabbler in knowledge.
A self-learner has a multitude of clamoring questions, in a multitude of domains of knowledge, seeking answers. To discover the nature of reality and the answers to these questions one must have access to a library of books.
[b]Most colleges have a ‘Friend of the Library’ card, which, for a small annual fee, will allow anyone to borrow books from that library.
After schooling is over the experience of learning begins. I think that the first step toward becoming a self-actualizing self-learner is to acquire at least one library card.[/b]
Public libraries are not just for kids on field trips.
Public libraries are so much more than a book storage facility.
Public libraries are places where people from all walks of life are welcome.
Public libraries are wonder-filled places where people of ignorance can find genius, a place where the homeless can find shelter and where the educated can find inspiration.
Public libraries smell like knowledge and taste like wisdom.
Public libraries are truly beautiful from the inside out.
Visiting public libraries often and for long periods of time is a modern form of respecting our elders.
Humanity is summed up in the content of the written word which can be found in a public library near you.
To study the masters from within a public library is a humbling and awe-inspiring experience for some people.
The line I used to entice my girlfriend into becoming my wife; “My library card has recently been renewed.”
-Savant
I avoid the grand university library because once it sucks me in it will never let me out. I can see it already. Smartest people I know live in their bedrooms (?), studying there after having fascinated and bullied the dumb friends to make them coffee and sing their praise all day long in the backround. That’s the way to do it.
Stopped borrowing books when I could afford to buy them. I hate giving books back, its like giving back a wonderful exciting toy. I like to keep books and read them over and over again. I get so much out of it. Of course having a husband and son of the same mind , means our house is littered with books everywhere, even the cars and shop have books in them. Oddly the one room that is mosted noted for having reading material is devoid of literature.(the throne room)
I’d say that the internet has made the library more optional after you do reading on the internet, a place to get books to read instead of buying them.
The internet is the hugest library in history, and it’s updated round the clock.
A library card doesn’t dictate if someone has internet access or their own private library, the internet has any book + millions more, than any bookstore, library or etc.
I have a few, but I don’t think that you can say that if you don’t have a library card in your wallet, you are not a self-learner. A good first step might be to ask yourself questions about yourself, but who knows.
I go through moments of head shaking marveling at the type of responses I read on others topics and responses to mine. Still I persevere that at least one person will get a spark of cogitation. Often I perceive their reactions are to try to win an argument rather than to se the viability of a thoughtful remark. Seeking truths has taken a back seat to egoistic application. Reason and critical thinking are rare like diamonds and the effort for some to dig up jewels of wisdom leads to the welfare line of vituperation. I say continue to learn and enlighten despite the philosophical dilettantes.
I could probably have a library as my house. I feel bad for books that rarely if ever get read. I look at the shelves and think about how it’s impossible that I could read even a small fraction of them.
I have a list of great books to read and yet it can become constraining at times. I like to walk the shelves and find a random interesting book to read . I saw some book on Neoplatonism of the Italian Renaissance, and I wanted to read it, yet I felt that I should read Plotinus and other Neo-platonists first. Next semester will be a free semester. I’m finally finishing up my overview of philosophy. It took two years. Now it’s time to attempt to write books of my own.
Anyway, I think about all the time and effort those people put in to write those books. It’s nice for their books to be read every once in a while, and there just might be some unknown gem among them.
If you spend all your time listening to what other people are saying you are spending very little time using the powers of reason and logic given to you to listen to what your mind is saying. It’s the most powerful tool available to you, and still you spend all of your life rationalising whether one persons beliefs are any better than anothers simply because it’s classed as knowledge by your tutours (whether they’re lecturers, or the historical figures in the books) and written in the pages.
university libraries are full of books and the cretins who read them, and you’ll still be lucky if you see a genius in the place in the course of its history. A lot of geniuses are dyslexic or have some sort of major reading and writing problem. einstein couldn’t do maths.
Use your imagination, it’s the only tool available that allows you to undertand anything.
