C.S. Lewis: Response

I recently read the Brain Pickings article which quoted the writer C.S. Lewis in his explanation of why we, humans, read. One take away I had from reading his quotes is his idea that reading  and gaining ideas that are not one's own does not change one's self, but rather improves and increases that self. "The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison," Lewis says of those who do not read. Reading literature not only enhances knowledge, but improves one's own internal being. Taking other's stories and ideas and learning from them does not make one less oneself, but rather allows that person to break free of the prison of being ignorant and one dimensional. "Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do," Lewis comments of his life post literary experience. Allowing the stories of other people, other cultures, and other time period to impact one's mind only makes that mind more unique and true to the individual. How I perceive what Lewis is stating is that because one is allowing outside ideas to enter his or her brain, he or she can then process and form opinions on the literary works, opinions unique to the individual. Reading a novel does not mean that the reader will agree and conform to every point made by the author, in turn becoming the author, but that the reader will run the text through his or her individual brain and take away the points that interest, challenge, or support his or her preconceived sense of self.