Joy of reading books
By Kumar Vikrant
Let's be honest: most of us have at some point in our lives searched online to find the benefits of reading or have heard cliches like 'reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body' from our teachers and elders. What I often find to be omitted is the fact that book reading is a very entertaining activity. As an avid book reader, I can testify that reading enriches my soul and provides me with immense joy and pleasure. Book reading is one of my favorite hobbies and leisure activities.
Quite peculiarly, there seems to be an innate realization among most of us that book reading is crucial in some vital way. Such an intuitive realization could be explained by the fact that we read textbooks in school while growing up, through which all sorts of knowledge and worldly phenomenon are revealed to us. Suddenly, the world makes more sense than ever. The pieces of the puzzle then fit together. Once we graduate high school and university, our lives often take a more specialized direction wherein it no longer remains mandatory to read textbooks. Book reading becomes more of a choice.
It's not very easy to explain in words what the joy of book reading is; instead, it needs to be experienced. It is indeed a great joy to be immersed in the world laid out in front of oneself in books. The classics often reveal innate human and societal nature to us. At the same time, the more contemporary fiction tackles the current socio-economic, political and personal themes to which we can all relate. Non-fiction titles help us understand our history, religion, philosophy and society and also reveal intriguing insights into the lives of leaders and public figures. Some books can be convenient to help us learn specific skills and tricks.
The beauty of books is that there is something for everyone. Books can teach us a new vocabulary, improve memory, enhance focusing and imaginative proclivities, relieve anxiety, provide entertainment and even be a haven from the daily horrors and ugliness of life. To my utter dismay, the new generation appears to be somewhat alienated from the concept of reading books for joy. Although books remain one of the biggest global markets, there seems to be a growing tide of youngsters spending more time online than with books.
Of course, the new technology brought with it audio and digital books. Audio books appear to be quite handy as one can now listen to books while doing other activities such as exercising or cleaning. However, in my opinion, the focus should be solely on books to derive the total value out of them. If you are doing other activities, then is the book serving the purpose of delivering joy? Who knows? As far as digital books are concerned, I'm pretty old-fashioned in the sense that I strictly read paper or hardbacks and fill my apartment with them. There is indeed a sensory pleasure in physically holding the paperback in my hand while reading it.
The various television dramas, video games, social media, movies and YouTube videos add to the modern entertainment value. I wish that more youngsters could adopt book reading as one of their favorite leisure activities. Given the emerging adverse health and psychological consequences of social media, prolonged digital screen exposure and earphone usage, it may be high time to begin the journey back to our civilizational roots, whose foundations were laid with books. We must never let books die, as depicted in the horror show laid out in Ray Bradbury's “Fahrenheit 451,” which remains one of my favorite dystopian novels.
Kumar Vikrant (
kvikrant071@gmail.com; https://www.kumarvikrant.com) is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Hanyang University in Seoul.