A Thousand Lives

This notion has existed in my subconscious ever since my 6-year-old self fell into the world of Harry Potter, but it was George Martin who put it so aptly to words: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”

So, yes, the hundreds of books that line my bedroom closet have taught me much about navigating the world; through paper and ink I have learned perspective, I have learned to question everything, I have learned to cling to my beliefs, I have learned the value of forgiveness and the value in admitting I was wrong.

But, more importantly, it is through those same books that I have learned to navigate my own world and my own mind.

At the feet of novels, I have learned the true meaning of courage and inner strength, of resilience. Books have long-enabled me to learn to live with myself and my situation. I cannot be constricted or contained -- to me, that wonderful, simple rectangle of page, ink, and binding is a pathway into a different life.

I have flown fighter jets, fought in the second world war, wielded lightsabers, and learned magic. I have raced cars and laid siege to castle walls -- I am a master swordsman and a master criminal; I am an engineer and a scientist, a politician, and an inventor; an old man facing death and a young man facing life.

I have experienced and lived in all corners of humanity.

My twenty years of life are traced and fed by the thousands of lives that I have witnessed through war and peace, joy and suffering, lives that, though they might exist only on a page, are inexplicably and exceptionally real to me. The shared experiences of every character of every story that I have consumed are as much a part of me as my own experiences, those particular, personal moments that have come to define who I am.

My morals have been tested. My definition of right and wrong has frayed into that gray area that only the best writers reside in, that gray area that is real life.

If I had to condense my library to a single novel, a single story that has brought to me both the greatest enjoyment and most poignant impact, it is Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts. It is a tale of love and hate, peace and war, honor amid amoral men. It is a story that has inspired me both as a human being, a thinker, a philosopher, and, importantly, as a writer.