The Frozen Seas

A book should be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us’
Written by: Franz Kafka

To me this quote (above) means a book should be sharp like the axe drawing your attention towards it, the book should be using vivid and descriptive words to get you interested in it- a little like the axe’s decorative design on the metal. The book has to be long like the handle of the ice axe, descriptively explaining what is happening. The handle can be long like the
“Harry Potter Series”
And descriptive like the
“Twilight Series”
All of these things relate to the axe being sharp and long. However if our minds, egos were the ‘frozen sea’, it would be impossible to break by hand, only the strongest of weapons can do this. The ice axe that is that weapon is a book according to Kafka. Books then can break down those barriers and show you a whole new world, it will make you interested in things you never would have discovered before. A book breaks down walls making you want to read more and understand what the words mean in the context. The ice axe breaks the ice letting you see the water beneath. The book breaks your lazy ego and draws you in. Books can break the ‘frozen sea’ (ego) in us; we can understand the world or people or ideas better from reading. If we read a book about pollution this might challenge our thinking. We could use our new knowledge to fight against pollution and try to save our world from global warming. We could all read but some of us just chose not to, some of us have never tried reading and are never pushed to do it. If that is you, you are like a ‘frozen sea’ never changing, never moving. Worse still sometimes governments prevent people getting knowledge from reading because books have power and this might lead to an unexpected problem, maybe even overthrow of the government. Some people don’t have an education because they cant read not allowing them to have equal access to the same thing we do, also they don’t get the power/ knowledge we do. Books also can take you to journeys and different places and worlds. Be brave and empathies the character the people who help him/her to escape reading offers help when our mind is full of ideas. It’s easier to read and get into the book to get things out of your mind.
The book that broke my ‘frozen sea’ is the Twilight series by Stephanie Mayer. Her characters and battle between immortal and mortal wove into me and now I love the series. Edward is a vampire which is in love with a human, and she loves him too her name is Bella. The characters made me pay a lot of attention to the relationship between them and what was really happening. This book made me read and now I pretty much will read anything. All thanks to one series I love reading, it broke my ego ‘frozen sea’ and now I will forever like reading.