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   /   /   /   /   /   /   /   /   /   /   /   /   /   /   /   /
  /___/___/___/___/___/___/___/___/___/___/___/___/___/___/___/
  |                                                           |
  |   .--.     .--.     .--.     .--.     .--.     .--.      |
  |  |    |   |    |   |    |   |    |   |    |   |    |     |
  |  |READ|   |GROW|   |THINK   |RISE|   |FREE|   |LIVE|     |
  |  |    |   |    |   |    |   |    |   |    |   |    |     |
  |  '----'   '----'   '----'   '----'   '----'   '----'     |
  |___________________________________________________________|
  |                                                           |
  |    "Reading had changed forever the course of my life."   |
  |___________________________________________________________|

The Library

A meditation on reading, transformation, and liberation

Today's Reading Malcolm's Journey On Reading The Dictionary Transformative Readers Reading as Resistance Reflect About

The Dictionary: Malcolm's First Teacher

In prison, Malcolm X faced a profound frustration: he could speak eloquently on the streets, but when he tried to write, he found himself nearly illiterate. He couldn't express the ideas burning inside him.

His solution was radical and methodical. He requested a dictionary from the prison library. Then he began copying it - every word, every definition - from the first page to the last.

aardvark

/ˈärdˌvärk/

1. A nocturnal burrowing mammal with a long snout...

The first word Malcolm X copied, beginning a transformation that would change history.

In His Own Words

Malcolm X copied the entire dictionary while in prison - every word, every definition, page by page.
He described how his world expanded with each new word: 'I suppose it was inevitable that as my word-base broadened, I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying.'
The dictionary was his teacher, his university, his liberation.
Each word was a brick in the foundation of a new self.
To name things precisely is the beginning of understanding them.
A rich vocabulary is a form of wealth no one can take from you.
Words are power - to know more words is to have more power.

The Power of Words

Malcolm filled tablets with words. He wrote until lights-out, then continued by the corridor light that seeped into his cell. Each word was a step toward freedom - not freedom from prison, but freedom of the mind.

When he had finished, he could read and understand books that had been closed to him. History opened up. Philosophy became accessible. He had given himself an education.

"I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words - immensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I'd written words that I never knew were in the world."