I think everything you're saying is correct, but doesn't discredit what the post says. I think even books we don't necessarily resonate strongly with can have small, hidden impacts on our behaviour and thinking. They might give us an example of what a person does in a certain situation, and we internalise how we might respond in a certain situation. In this I think it is kind of similar to an LLM, where we kind of predict what our response to something should be, drawing from our past experiences on an abstract level.
I think books we do resonate with can have a larger impact for the reasons you mentioned, but I think they all have an impact.
I like to think of books as planets, and you're a spaceship. If you're not paying attention, as you graze a planet it'll slightly alter your course. Maybe in perceptibly so. If you are aware of it and resonate with it, you can kind of use its gravity to swing you into a different direct -- presumably onto a direction you want to go in.
Almost everything we do, everything we hear, everything we see, everything we experience etc.. they all have an impact. And while books do shape our thinking the statement "You are what you read" is nothing different from the hyperboles/metaphors "You are what you eat" or "You are who you associate yourself with" etc.
I think books we do resonate with can have a larger impact for the reasons you mentioned, but I think they all have an impact.
I like to think of books as planets, and you're a spaceship. If you're not paying attention, as you graze a planet it'll slightly alter your course. Maybe in perceptibly so. If you are aware of it and resonate with it, you can kind of use its gravity to swing you into a different direct -- presumably onto a direction you want to go in.