Love for Reading Books

A few weeks back Shilpi was down in the clubhouse library room adding some newly added books to the shelf. One of the neighbours passed by and remarked something like “Who reads books these days? Our kids study all day at school. You again want to force them to study after coming back home?” For us, books enjoy a status of unquestionable reverence. They mean something good, pure, noble, lofty. Reading books is good. You don’t ask why! And here was someone asking why! This left Shilpi stunned and speechless.

This piece is not to pass a judgement on that lady. For all you know, it may have been a joke made in poor taste. We know for sure that that lady is a smart person working in a senior role in a reputed multinational company. So, no comments on her intellectual capability either.

The fact is: her remark made us think. And this is the reply I would have wished to give her. Not a lecture on the merits of reading habits in general, but a very personal account about what books have meant to me all my life. Before I forget, a heartfelt thank to that neighbour, who made us understand ourselves a little better.

Witness a Beautiful Mind

Books are an embodiment of accumulated knowledge, thoughts, imagination and emotions of the author(s) on a chosen set of topics. It’s an image of a beautiful mind -- the most beautiful thing in nature. Is it the only possible image? Of course not! The beauty of mind can reveal itself in various forms: a picture, a movie, a play, a sculpture, a speech, an organisation, a product, an idea, a piece of research… I think this list is endless. Even a beautiful human relation is a creation of a beautiful human mind.

Books, or long form writing of any kind, is one such manifestation. It can’t be done by individual, isolated pieces or by mere expertise in a language. The intellectual glue, the overarching theme of the book that binds it together, and how its tiny little parts fit together without being forced, is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed. This phenomenon is what keeps me picking one book after another. It’s not necessarily a thirst for knowledge which is available in other forms too and probably more efficient one than books. It’s also not for entertainment, which again, is an easily available commodity in many other forms.

Active and Nourishing Entertainment

There’s another reason why reading, especially reading books, is such a unique experience. The magical experience hidden in the books is a gentle and shy creature. It comes and knocks on your mind’s door only once. If you are distracted, if you aren’t attentive, you will miss that. The experience you get on reading is also possible only when you put in the active effort of searching in the words that the book is trying to project on your mind’s screen. This is active entertainment as opposed to passive ones like audio-visual or social media. This, it’s been long and repeatedly evidenced in literature, is very good for your mind. You aren’t just consuming pre-digested nuggets of information and entertainment, but are actively working on it, processing it to create the experience or outcome you are seeking. This is a fundamentally effortful activity yet is capable of creating a level of relaxation not achievable through most other forms of entertainment. Its analogy in the physical domain is exercising. Of course, it’s strenuous and makes you sweat, yet it may be a more effective way of unwinding after a hectic day than watching a movie or partying hard.

Commune with Great Minds

Many books, especially non-fiction books, have given me an exquisite experience of being in a conversation with the author. Great books don’t merely present content that has to be passively absorbed by the reader. Rather, they are written in a conversational style, goading the reader to think, agree, disagree, challenge, applaud and sometimes say ‘Eureka!’. An intense reading session has often left me with an aftertaste of having conversed with a great mind.

A Noble Escape

Books are also an escape — from a reality that sometimes tends to get too monotonous and dreary, where sometimes one tends to feel like a prisoner — of ordinary, practical, worldly and socially acceptable ways. But this escape, unlike many others, doesn’t intoxicate you, doesn’t create dependence. Instead, it liberates you to forget yourself and your ordinary selfish life by immersing yourself into loftier issues and subjects: philosophy, science, arts. Such an escape, even if temporary, cleanses you, leaves you perceptive of a reality beyond yourself. It wakes you to your fundamental right to delve into selfless ruminations. This leads to personal growth and nourishment of the soul.

So those are a few of the reasons why I read books. And that’s the experience I would like to share with others through this library. I feel that a culture of reading and sharing your afterthoughts with others could foster a culture of intellectual vibrance in our society. I understand that whether this happens in reality is predicated by how well people accept this thought and this initiative. The degree of broader acceptance of an idea/initiative is often not a reflection of the quality, scalability or effectiveness of an idea but a reflection of the state of the world and the people who populate it. My career in doing research has made this conviction very sound.

This is what I would have liked to tell the neighbour who asked, “Why read books?” Books and reading are not for everyone. But there are people who love reading books; and these are people — kids and adults alike — who would benefit from this magical experience if initiated at some point in their lives. And pardon my bias, but the more the number of such people, the merrier a place this world will be.