THE READING HABIT
As human beings it is important for us to know about as many things as we can. How can we know about all the things around us? The things which had happened, things which are still happening or things which might happen in the future? Well, it’s simple. We can know them through learning. How do we learn? Would it be expensive to learn? No! Learning is cheap!
We can learn through books. Books are cheap. A single book does not cost much, but the knowledge it gives is invaluable. Those who know books know that they offer joys and riches unsurpassed. Yet, millions let slip the chance to read, or they read only the cheapest trash, things meant to drug the mind rather than delight it and stimulate it.
In hours of unbearable sorrow, books are refuge. In hours of loneliness, they provide a multitude of friends. The poorest man or woman may travel abroad or live in a castle of his own, in a book.
A book is a flying divan, a magic carpet, a house of ever changing furniture, a party, a new viewpoint and a lot of other things. Why let a cat have nine lives and live only one yourself? Books can offer you as many lives as you want to experience. All you need to do is read them…
A book, I think, is very like
A little golden door
That takes me into places
Where I’ve never been before.
It leads me into fairyland
Or countries strange and far
And, best of all, the golden door
Always stands ajar.
People ought to read books. The man who neglects them is walling himself in and starving his soul. Only the reader of books realizes the oneness of human family, the repetition of the same errors and crimes, good deeds and noble thoughts. The person who reads no books lives on a desert island. He robs himself of unlimited wealth to be had for the taking.
What sort of books is best to read? The answer is every sort. The important thing is not to lose touch with life, not to narrow your outlook. Some people look down on fiction and think it trifling. They talk as if facts were the only important things of life and put history, biography and science higher. But, history and biography both contain fiction. If we read with an open and inquiring mind, history and biography will be found to be as fascinating and exciting as any other form of literature.
But, there is no need to neglect novels for histories. Just as there is a certain amount of fiction in the fact books, so there is a vast amount of truth in good fiction. A novelists who takes his art seriously is a good spokesman for human sympathy and human understanding. If you read a well-written novel, you will feel as if you are a part of the story. As you make yourself one with the characters in the book you will learn many invaluable messages, thoughts, values and others,
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, some few to be chewed and digested” -Francis Bacon.
Reading books might bee seen as a boring and unchallenging activity to those who hates doing so. However, those who love reading see it as adventurous and exciting. It’s up to us to decide. Is reading boring, or is it exciting? Is it wasteful or is it worthwhile?
So long as men can breathe and eyes can see, so long live books, and books give life to us…..
Let us learn all the knowledge, the joys, the sorrow, the histories and the ‘treasure’ books can offer us.
