Are books still relevant today? #reading #books

The answer to that, of course, is a resounding YES!
Personally, I have very few friends who read books for entertainment. The excitement I feel when I meet someone else who reads, the prospect of discussing books we’ve both read is unmatched. I think all readers feel the same way.

• ‘Tis the age of internet and smartphones, Netflix and TV shows for entertainment, books are passe and frankly, time-consuming.
• All the information we need is at our fingertips, quite literally!
• We have such busy lives, jobs, friends, family- who has the time and energy to read after all of this?

These are some of the most common reasons I am given by non-readers.

Also, I just reach a point where it becomes impossible to stare at a screen anymore!
And isn’t it a little disconcerting when we need a break from entertainment that’s supposed to relax us?
I’ll be honest here, at the end of a tiring day, if at 10PM, I am watching a movie or videos on Youtube, or just flicking through social media, I’d stay awake much longer than if I was reading a book. There’s just something so relaxing, so soothing about the presence of a book.

Books have always been a part of my life. When I see posts like ‘Which was the book that made you get into reading’, it wasn’t just one particular book. It’s a habit formed from childhood. A habit that has now become a pleasure.

The best thing I like is that a hundred people can read the same book, and each of them will have imagined it differently. Isn’t that awesome? The emotion conveyed through the words in a book is lost in the movie or TV series of the same book.
In these forms of entertainment, you’re just viewing the imagination of someone else.
The development of the mind, of the aesthetic, takes time- it happens layer by layer, just like the pages of a book turn over. Information is anyways easily available. This development of the overall personality is the edge books have. This is the reason books are more relevant than ever- today!

And how horrific would it be to have no literature, no grammar at all! Books, which have been around for many years, are the sole custodians of these wonderful treasures. It is books that give us complete knowledge on a subject. Media will always leave something out.

Question- What can you do in a place where network and internet access is poor?
Yep, that’s right- read books!

And if someone has the attention span or vocabulary the size of an ant, please forgive them. They probably don’t read books.

All this is apart from the scientifically proven damaging effects social media and mass consumption media have on the human body.

So this is to all the readers reading- let’s take a pledge. Let’s try to bring people back to reading. Let’s try to convert at least one non-reader to a reader, each of us. For a community of 300, that becomes 300 people getting back to reading. And the community is much larger than that. Let us become agents of change.

For all the non-readers who reached here, I hope you’ll are convinced, because I don’t know what else will. You can reach out to any reader friend for recommendations. Believe me, we feel very excited at the prospect of discussing a book with a friend.

So, What will it be?

I’d just like to end here with my favourite quote of all time, the words being said by a book to humankind-

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

A huge thanks to three of my brothers- Aadesh, Abhishek and Prayag who helped me with the topic selection, brainstorming of ideas and post editing.