Love for Reading Books

A few weeks back, my wife was down in the clubhouse library room adding some newly inducted books to the library shelf (we run a small library in our society). 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 just a joke. 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. Really! Why read books? Information and entertainment are available in other forms too. Then, what's so great about books? I think, it's a valid question begging a serious answer. And this is the reply I would have wished to give her. Not a lecture on the merits of reading habits in general (though I can't claim it has turned out to be something radically different than that), but a very personal account of what books have meant to me all my life. Before I forget, a heartfelt thanks 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 other 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 ones 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 in 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. On the one hand, visual content gives readymade pictures of tangible things, e.g. people, places and events, while reading, we have to conjure them in our head. On the other hand, visual medium can't present anything abstract directly, e.g. emotions and thoughts, and has to take help from their tangible manifestation, e.g. facial expressions, or visual symbols or voiceover narratives. Written words shine at presenting abstract thoughts, because these are just words; the abstract ideas they contain really take form in your head. When you are reading, 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. Reading, in short, is a co-creation process where you collaborate with the author to create your own entertainment. 

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.

Long Term Assimilation

I have found my mind chewing on the extracts from a book long after I am done reading it; and through years, assimilating ideas from multiple books. This, though not completely unique with books, is definitely the most prevalent in the case of books, and happens much less frequently with, say, movies.

An Elevating Escape from the Mundane

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. You can escape into the world of science fiction or fantasy. You can travel into a Utopian or dystopian future, or deep into the past ages. You can work alongside a detective to investigate a gruesome murder, or you can feel the passions of a lover. On a different, more intellectual, note, you can immerse yourself deep into subjects of science, philosophy and art. This escape, unlike many others, doesn’t intoxicate you, doesn’t create dependence. Instead, it shows you how liberating it is to forget yourself and your ordinary selfish life by immersing yourself into loftier issues and subjects. Such an escape, even if temporary, cleanses you, leaves you perceptive of a reality beyond yourself. This is soul-nourishing.

So those are a few of the reasons why I read books. 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 among those who don't yet read, there 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 book readers, the merrier a place this world will be.

Appendix -- About the Library

As mentioned early in this article, we run a small library in our society. Of course, we run it for free. Books are available for residents to borrow. The collection is almost completely created out of books donated by benevolent residents. To be honest, the library is a struggling entity. As of now, the residents find no particular advantage in looking for the next book to read in our collection instead of in Amazon or Flipkart, in terms of the effort and the probability of getting something they wish to read. There are many moments of self-doubt. But, at the moment, I don't consider giving up necessary. I feel hopeful. We need to augment our collection. We need to promote and inform more aggressively. We need to make it even more convenient to borrow books. At some instant, there will be a tipping point. I will keep trying various approaches to increase the reader penetration. You may ask, why this doggedness? Why not just let it be?

I shared above the experience I have had each time I read a good book. 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 popular traction that an idea/initiative gets often is 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. So, I wait and keep trying various things. Even if everything fails, I would have succeeded in the most important thing: giving an idea its due chance.