How books can open your mind | Lisa Bu

What happens when a dream you've held since childhood ... doesn't come true? As Lisa Bu adjusted to a new life in the United States, she turned to books to expand her mind and create a new path for herself. She shares her unique approach to reading in this lovely, personal talk about the magic of books.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

[purplebambi]

"in books you will never be powerless or lonely again"

[dash]

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” ~ George R.R. Martin.

[ThanosSofroniou]

Knowledge is the strongest foundation of someone's success.

Books are the best way to communicate knowledge.

Therefore, books help someone achieve their goals and reduce chance of failure probably better than any other thing

[yetiarbiz]

This talk is a league of its own and cannot be compared with the other TED talks that I've watched. She deserves every minute of that standing ovation. So happy for this inspirational woman.

[chloereynolds]

As an English Literature student and lover of books, I really enjoyed this talk.

[mjrulesamrat]

And she quote "Coming true is not only the purpose of dream, It's most important purpose is to get us in touch with where dreams come from, where passion comes from, where happiness comes from. Even a shattered dream can do that for you."

[TristenDurocher]

"Second class happiness."

I love that

[papiqah]

Reading is so fun, the thought of yourself gaining some new and unknown knowledge is always fun but none of my friends like to read and that makes me feel odd 😶

[evolvementkey]

Jim Rohn once said: "You are the average of the 5 people you hangout with most" and although this is pretty subjective, I think it is somewhat true. The cool thing is though, let's say your 5 friends you hangout with most are all drifters, they only care about getting drunk and partying and you actually want to make something out of your life, how fucking amazing is it, that you can do that with books. If you want the opinion of Warren Buffet, you can read his book. If you want to know how Elon Musk looks at everyday things, you can read his book. In my opinion, books are not only great to broaden your horizon, but they can be powerfull for the people who are searching for meaning in life, just like As Lisa Bu was when she started reading.

[trendy]

If you read one book you are more inclined toward dogma; if you read many books you are more inclined to ask questions and think for yourself.

[derek]

i love how genuine she was during her speech, especially around 1:30 when she talked about her fears of being stuck with some "second class happiness".

broke my heart a little when her voice stuttered.

[dbooooodb]

Reading gives me a motive and keeps my mind thinking, away from the robotic routine daily life we have to live

[krimmy]

These are the books she mentioned
1.Correspondence in the Family of Four Lei
2. Jane Eyre
3. Cheaper by the dozen
4. Lessons from History
5. Complete works of Sanmao
6. The good Earth
7. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
8. David McCullough
9.Personal History
10.The snowball
11. Lamb
12.Power of myths

[atikanursyahbani]

"Books have given me a magic portal to connect with people in the past and the present." Amazing!

[maheshkamble]

it's amazing to see how tolerant the audience is, she made a little bit of fun of the Holy Bible, but people out there took it so sportingly, This is the kind of people we need all around the world.

[ashleyhynes]

Books allow me to dive into the minds of some of histories greatest teachers and dream makers. When you think about it, books are truly one of mankind's greatest achievements. From taking us on adventures to far away worlds to helping us fundamentally understand ourselves in a deeper way and everything in between, truly brilliant.

[syerikbolatmanap]

I loved her word, “in books you never be powerless or lonely again”.

[kajolk]

"Loneliness can often be cured when you open a book". I heard this somewhere and now it's quite satisfactory to see that this fact is actually proved by various people on this earth. Thank you TED channel for constantly making such amazing content! so inspiring....

[김홍기-zi]

I am a middle school student who is poor at English. However, you inspired me to start reading books in two language: English, Korean!! THANK YOU SO MUCH~!!!

[samuelfey]

with books come knowledge and knowledge means power!