How reading books can help you?

I waited for years together for my schooldays to get over.

Why?

Because I didn’t like to read books.

Though I studied for sure to get good marks and move to the next grade, but if given an option I would have never touched them.

I found them boring.

I would read story books sometimes but that was also occasional. I was more into outdoor games.

Then I moved to a college in a bigger city.

I missed my old friends and the time we used to have.

It took time to have new friends but once I had them, again same old stuff.

Among my new friends, one I gelled best with was an avid reader. There, for the first time, 

I came across Sherlock Holmes novels, Agatha Christie, Jeffrey Archer etc.

He had one full shelf stacked with novels written by these and few other writers.

He tried to buy me in reading those but I stayed away.

Reading was the last thing I wanted to do. I was just waiting for the college to get over so that I am done with reading books for my life.

At least that’s what I had planned until a few years later in a new city, a new job, with almost no friends; I stumbled upon the idea of reading a novel.

It took me a few months to get into the habit of reading but once I got used to it, I would finish a book in a night as well.

I would look for new writers, new genres to read and slowly I moved from fiction to Non-fiction and now, after a few years of friendship with books, they have become as integral part of my life as my daily food.

Now, I have taken the role of my friend from college and I persuade people to get into the habit of reading.

And whenever I do that, I am encountered with these phrases quite often.

“why should I read?”

“I don’t like reading.

“how will it help me?”

And with almost entire world in a lockdown, all of us are looking for ideas to utilize our time at home in a better way.

While some of us have taken to the reading books already as one of things to do in this time, some of us are still wondering whether I should do it or not.

So here once and for all, I decided to chart down the reasons one must start reading books and if possible, may consider making reading as one of their hobbies, if not the most important hobby.

1) It takes you to a new world

All of us live in our own world.

Some are happy, some are unhappy and some have gotten used to it.

Books take you to a new world which the writer has created.

It shifts your focus at least for some time from the problems you are facing in your life to a new world which may be all happy with no worries.

2   2) It changes your perspective

For a very long time, whatever I believed and had gone through in my life that used to be the normal for me.

I mean, I thought that’s how most people live and think until I started reading books.

I came across different people from different cultures with different beliefs and that changed how I saw things around me.

I was more absorbing of the things that didn’t gel with my normal and more understanding of the people around me and it helped me in having better friendships and better relationships.

 3)    It helps to deal with your problems

Until I was in a victim mindset zone, I believed my problems are the biggest & rarest.

I would crib for having those problems until I started reading biographies, memoirs of the living heroes this world has seen.

I was shocked at what problems people had faced in this world and a lot of them, came out of those problems better, bigger and stronger and that too, without even an ounce of cribbing which I was so fond of.

Reading books made me realize there is another way of facing problems that is to tame them.

There are people who have already faced same things or may be bigger than what I am facing and have written about how they overcame those problems.

I just have to follow that path to grow out of my problems.

4)    You don’t need someone to accompany you

Whatever games I played since my childhood, it always involved somebody else.

I was always dependent on someone else to enjoy my time until I started reading.

In reading, your companion is a book which you can always have.

It doesn’t need a special designed place to read and no counterpart as well which helped me to become independent of others to enjoy my time.

5)    It is the best utilization of time

We all know we have a limited edition life with a set number of days already entered in our journal.

We can’t afford to waste any time; even though we do, that’s a different matter altogether.

Reading books makes use of the time like nothing else, it provides knowledge and understanding of its subject, it makes us self-sufficient, it makes us patient with our time, it makes us thoughtful, it helps in improving our vocabulary and it helps us come across some genuinely interesting people over a shared hobby of reading books.

All that for just reading a book; now who wouldn’t do that.

6)    It is the best legacy you can leave for your next generation

I have come across a lot many people who work their whole life to accumulate money, houses, Investment to leave for their children but fail to leave any legacy as a Human being.

No principles for life, no real values, no humanity and definitely no real character.

So what happens once they face real life?

All that accumulated wealth is not able to give them the life they deserve.

They suffer in various ways, curse their parents and die poorer (both materially and immaterially) than their parents.

Real cause?

No real legacy by their parents.

Books give us, the parents or the future parents, a chance to leave a legacy for our children through which they can build a life worth remembering, worth living and worth sharing with others.

The values they get by reading the stories of real life heroes, stories of win in spite of all odds stacked against the winners, stories of empathy, compassion, love, care, team spirit, courage, these all create a human being which all parents would be proud of.

A book can change the direction of a life, life of generations or the direction of a society as well; so if you have still not gotten into the habit of reading, may be you would want to do it now, at least for your next generations, at least for the future you and at least for the current you, who deserve more of all the good things in life to have.