There's something about not stopping online lately - other than the coronavirus and questions about when the quarantine will end, of course - are the comments about Ermal Mamaqi's latest statement regarding reading books. More specifically, reading novels.
If you are not updated with the situation, Ermal Mamaqi posted on Instagram a series of videos aimed at motivating followers to find their purpose in life. Initially, Mamaqi said:
"Don't read nonsense. There are some who read novels. Ok I don't have anything concrete against, but who reads more novels now aman, only retirees. You need to read books that are valuable, books that are related to your profession or books that are related to the situation you are going through. ?
After some followers disagreed with his opinion, they continued with critical comments, pointing out that "reading the book does no harm to anyone", which forced Mamaqi to react again.
"For the work of the novels that I said only pensioners read. I also said it in the first video that I have nothing against novels, because I have read many novels in life, but in this time we are going through, novels are read by retirees and rich people because they have things perfectly. It?s not the moment to read novels now, novels have tremendous value, but it?s not the moment to read novels or see classical opera and ballet now. It's time to dump her and move on. "
For the sake of truth, he agrees with Ermal on one point. In other words, he is promoting practicality. So, if we put the situation in concrete examples, we can refer to Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors in history and the fourth richest man in the world. The real estate and stock exchange genius (Via Time Money) has said that the book that changed his life is "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham, a book that talks about valuable investments and buying stocks.
It is worth mentioning the cases of other successful people, whose lives were changed not by books related to their profession or novels: Mark Zurckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, mentions as the most inspiring book "The New Jim Crow" Michelle Alexander, a book that focuses on mass imprisonment, which destroys the judicial system; Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and the second richest man in the world, estimates "The Better Angels of Our Nature" by Steven Pinker, which deals with reducing violence in a world that is improving.
What if what Ermali is promoting has been successful in many cases, where is the problem? To understand the problem with Mamaqi's statement, I present to you some other cases that novels do not read and should not be read only by retirees.
Former Cisco CEO John Chambers mentioned that Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was a book that helped him overcome the difficulties he had in learning when he was a child. "It was the book that turned my shortcomings into the strongest point," he said. Cheryl Sandberg, Facebook's director of operations, mentioned Madeleine L'Engle's fantasy-screen novel "A Wrinkle in Time." "I wanted to be Meg Murry. I wanted to work with others and reject an unfair system, "she said.
But if those names don't mean anything to you, you probably all know Jeff Bezos. The book that inspired the richest man in the world is the novel "The Remaining Day" by the writer, which has been hailed by critics as a mix of Jane Austen, Kafka and Proust: Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro. Although Bezos' ex-wife said that "he read the book a year after the founding of Amazon", in his biography, written by American journalist Brad Stone, it is said that Ishiguro's "Remaining Day" is one of the books that influenced to his decision to conceive Amazon.
Having said all this to argue that the problem with Mamaqi's statement lies in the exclusion of one thing (reading novels) and the promotion of the other (books related to the profession). If it were said that "read novels, but also read these ..." I would definitely agree, but not reading novels and literature in general is not the most beautiful thing you can say to 1 million 200 thousand e some followers.
"You insult the Albanian out of love and there is no problem. But if you insult him from the novel, it's not a joke with the novel, "Mamaqi reacted afterwards, who probably still doesn't understand why the followers criticized him. "I didn't know we were such an artistic people," he added. Maybe he's right. Maybe we are not. And we will continue not to be if we promote illiteracy.
