To begin with, I am the type of person who is keen on reading. More specifically, books have begun forming my world vision at the very beginning of my life. My father told me many stories when I could not read myself, but as soon as I understood the technique, I have dived into the world of books, which I personally consider “another universe.” To my way of thinking, good writers enable the readers to understand their opinion by using simple signs on the paper so that they influence readers to develop their thoughts and continue increasing their analysis capacity.
The Book That Changed My Life
After a certain amount of book reading experience, I began developing my preferences for the book genre, volume, and utility. Consequently, sociological books became the most appealing ones due to their significant influence on my world perception. While investigating how deep inequality affects our society, I understood that my future job would be directly connected with analyzing the inequality effect in any sphere of our life. When I was in high school, the book “Why nations fail” was recommended by many scientists and businessmen as a “must-read” for those who want to learn something new about inequality, so I immediately bought it (Acemoglu and Robinson 1). From the first page to the end, the authors represented the most fundamental analysis of life inequality in every part of the world. I was impressed how they coped with describing such complicated phenomenon by using just written words. However, after some time, I realized that possibly it is due to the authors’ cutting-edge ability to represent their thought after a deep analysis of what they are supposed to transmit to the readers. As a result, a significant benefice of reading rather than listening to people is that written words, in most cases, should be analyzed by the individual themselves. On the other hand, speaker’s explanation might be distorted from from the genuine author’s interpretation.
Nevertheless, the most influential part of the book was dedicated to the rhetoric question of why two people have absolutely different, moreover counterpart levels of life even though their homes are situated thirty kilometers from each other. More specifically, the authors describe the impossible theories that influence our life quality, such as geographical positioning or natural resources scarcity. However, their main point of view is that only the formal and informal institutes of a specific country determine its further development of stagnation. In fact, the institutional theory is interesting for analysis while thinking about a group or national quality of life. The more inclusive the country’s institutions, the more it is possible to live a better life and gain a higher income per family. Finally, this book gave me a qualitative “start” in my further inequality analysis.
Reading from Self-Learning Perspective
While written words enable understanding directly what thoughts the author was supposed to transmit, there is no doubt that such a principle might significantly improve the learning process. In other words, people are not supposed to read only in the meantime to relieve the stress or distract from boring activities. Reading allows us to understand the specific subject from different points of view since most authors have personal explanations of any phenomenon. As a result, when I, as a student, cannot fundamentally realize some notions or theories, I choose some books from related subjects and read different explanations of the same phenomenon (Moje 161). After that, I find one that fits my comprehension abilities. By doing this process regularly, any person might disclose the needed information by appealing to the written word. In some cases, an individual’s listening comprehension is situated on a higher level than the reading one, so that personal explanation will help them to understand the subject faster. However, in my opinion, only self-learning will lead the person to success in their studies owing to the fact that consistent doubt of contrary opinion will help to realize the truth. At the same time, listening to others deprives a person of the ability to think for themselves.
For instance, when analyzing my personal experience of diving into the subject of inequality, it becomes clear that I could not change my point of view on certain aspects if I listened to tutors instead of reading different works. After the “Why nations fail” reading, I decided to switch the analysis of group life quality to the individual one, which was not disclosed in this book. Consequently, I have chosen the prose book by Theodore Dreiser: “Financier” (Dreiser 1). In fact, individual life inequality is a more discussable subject since all people have different abilities and desires. Moreover, the author clearly stated that nor society nor public institutions can provide personal success. Only the individual’s wishes and actions determine their life quality, which is the opposite opinion provided in “Why nations fail” work.
Consequently, I have changed my opinion about the main source of inequality and, finally, realized the unique formula of inequality source in the world. More specifically, it is the individual who lives in a specific country with certain institutes, and the more the personal strategy correlates with the country’s institutes development, the bigger the probability of life success. Without a doubt, this statement will be revised after reading other works, but this is the main essence of reading written materials: discussing any point of view to find the “gold” parity between them.
Works Cited
Acemoglu, Daron, and James Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. 1st ed., Currency, 2013.
Dreiser, Theodore. The Financier. Meridian, 1995.
Moje, Elizabeth Birr. Handbook of Reading Research, Volume V. 1st ed., Routledge, 2020.