There is a significant difference between entertainment and true art. Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" was a terrifically entertaining book. It appealed to the adventurous side of me, the spiritual side of me, and the proverbial struggle between good and evil. i would sit and read several chapters in one sitting. The book was finished in no time at all. i was thoroughly entertained (the movie being another story all together).
i have been reading a selection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson for about 14 years now and i am not even halfway through the book. i read about 2 paragraphs and then write, and think, and create. i can meditate for years on a single essay of his alone. It is not so much the words as what they pull out of you, what they stir up in you, how they inspire you. They mean something different to everyone who reads them. It is an eloquent call to be yourself. A call to better yourself. A call to inspire.
Both books grace my collection. One i enjoy and recommend to others for vacation or airplane reading. The other changes my life every time i open the well worn cover. i am glad i have both, but i never confuse the two.
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