Should I still be reading books?

Can the road of knowledge be traversed otherwise??

The culmination of the thought process in our minds has a lot to do with our coming in contact with books. Whether it may be the kinder-garden story books or the heavy duty study material we read in our schools or the soul stirring fiction stories of the college years or the thought provoking life management books later on, books have always played a vital part in viewing life from a different perspective altogether. They show us the best way to live our lives, as they are nothing less than an avalanche of experiences, of thoughts, of viewpoints and of knowledge.

We could never forget the effect of the colourful pictures and stories of the fairy tales as a kid, the mind-boggling intricacies of the working of the petrol engine which was crammed from the Physics book and the surprising discoveries ensemble in the Biology books, the unimaginable aftermaths of the World wars as seen through the History books, the initial conclaves with Nancy Drew and the Famous Five, the life changing fiction of Ayn Rand and Paulo Coelho and the “thinking out of the box” ideologies of “Fish” and “Who moved my cheese”, to name a few. You can always peek in the past and find a book which somehow shaped the way you are today, indirectly or directly.

Yes, the invasion of electronic media is very much here. Our lives have become very hectic and we are always performing the “balancing act”. Surely its hard to squeeze a few pages of a book into our busy schedule. But that’s what makes it more important to dwell into the habit of reading, because in such a scenario, books are more than therapeutic. They provide a way to unwind, relax and to loose yourself in another world. Today, E-books have also become the norm of the day. But its not easy to get an e-copy of a book of all the authors on the Internet as this is what a person whose job is remotely connected to computers would prefer. But to say the least, opening an e-book on a computer screen can never replace the thrill of turning the pages of a new book in your hands. Watching a folder on your laptop getting filled with e-books can never replace the enriching experience of watching a library grow in your house.

Ultimately, books are a fountainhead of understanding life, to understand the intricacies of the vast ocean of our existence, to broaden our horizons and to listen to what the wisest of our present and the past generation have to say. They allow us to see life from a larger telescope and make us understand that how narrow our perspectives can be without them.

Surely, each book is a road to Damascus in its own right.