Earlier this week, I heard something on the radio that I found interesting: it was about how young people nowadays believe you can learn more about how a person really is from the books they own than from their social media profile. What do you think of that?
I´m not well-versed in social media, so on that side, I prefer not to give an opinion, beyond repeating the usual argument that says that social media only shows us a minuscule portion of a person´s life, often carefully selected, and never telling the whole story, not even remotely.
De libros igual sí que sé un poco más. Seguramente ya os habré contado que crecí en una familia con muchos, muchísimos libros en casa, y he pasado muuuchas horas leyendo a lo largo de mi vida, costumbre que quiero volver a retomar porque, por desgracia, la he ido perdiendo… Pero bueno, podríamos decir que yo también he heredado esa debilidad por la lectura, y he intentado inculcársela también a mis hijas.
(Sign seen in a well-known department store in Madrid, El Corte Inglés: "Each book is a window to the world. Come and have a look.")
Este verano estuve haciendo limpia de algunos de los libros de mi padre, y sí que es verdad que reflejaban mucho sus intereses y aficiones: libros de política, de historia, de arte… Pero yo creo que la clave no es que fueran precisamente libros, sino que simplemente eran sus cosas, las que eligió tener en su casa porque le gustaban y las utilizaba. Para mi padre, la lectura era una parte muy importante del día a día; para otras personas, serán otras cosas.
So maybe I would slightly rephrase that comment to say that you can learn more about how a person really is by visiting their home, or their room: the place they consider theirs and that they make their own, inadvertently making it reflect their character and preferences. In our house, there are many books, yes, but there are also games and many other things that reflect the way we are and what is important to us.
They say a book is a window to the world; perhaps the window to a person is not their social media, but the place where they live and are allowed to be themselves.