Readings on Reading

It is quite a disappointment that people have stopped reading books. Books used to be the only kind of intellectual entertainment just a hundred years ago, but, with the invention of radio, television, cinematography, and, most recently, the Internet and computer games, it seems that reading books is no longer an option of a leisure activity, at least for the younger generation. However, I believe that books are an irreplaceable part of our lives, and the role that good books play on the personal growth and development of a particular person throughout one’s life, is a remarkable one. Books can hardly be replaced with movies, music and interactive TV shows, and there are several reasons for that.

First of all, books expand our knowledge and conception of the world around us. You may argue that movies and TV documentaries do just that too, but I believe that books are a much better alternative, since they allow each reader to experience the same story using one’s own imagination. When a hundred people watch a movie or a TV show, they see the same thing – whatever the director and the operator wish to show. Books are very different. The experience achieved through reading is richer and more personal, since the same description and the same word choice will result in as many different interpretations as there are readers. We are all unique, and books allow us to experience whatever is narrated, in the light of our own personal values, through our ideas and our imagination.

Secondly, books enrich our vocabulary, introduce us to new notions and offer us a wider choice of words. With every book you read, you become more intelligent. Even reading one seemingly more primitive pulp fiction book per month, can enrich one’s personal vocabulary with dozens of new words, help build more concise sentences and express oneself better, make one’s speech more intelligent and sophisticated. Watching certain TV programs and documentary movies can also widen one’s vocabulary, but hardly as effectively as books do, since when reading, we operate with both visual and audial (if reading aloud) receptors, so our perception becomes more effective and our memory works more efficiently. In addition to that, our imagination reproduces mental pictures of what we are reading about, so a new word automatically links to a certain image and a certain feeling that it relates to. Therefore, reading books is a great tool when it comes to learning and developing one’s vocabulary at any age.

Finally, books are a great source of inspiration. Unlike fine art, architecture or traveling, books help us create our own mental illustration for everything we read on paper. So, in a way, books make us all artists and creators of our own mental cartoon, movie or illustration collection. Every image we create ourselves is automatically allotted a certain emotion, whether a simple or a more complicated one. So, every mental image that a written word causes is vibrant with feelings and emotions. This is what makes books so powerful and so memorable. This is what makes books "evolutive" (take not, "EVOLUTIVE" hahahah) for all of us. Books are an endless source of inspiration and motivation to become a better person.

I am certain that creating a system of symbols and eventually an alphabet, words, and books was the greatest invention of humankind. Of course, the books I am talking about are classics, those that do not have an expiration date and will be priceless for any generation. Books like that stay forever, they cannot die and cannot become outdated. They will keep sparking new ideas, inspiring new deeds and enriching the lives of every generation to come. Therefore, I am positive that books will eventually regain their popularity for today’s youth, since, unlike the popular kinds of entertainment in fashion today, books are those roots to which people will always go back, in search of the motivation, inspiration and aspiration, to find the meaning and value of things in life.