Blog@GraceJunction

In my office, my colleagues always find me reading during break time and sometimes even during the day. I am known in my office as a good reader. Sometimes I have good deliberations with my colleagues on reading, and some of them appreciate my habit.

A few days back, when we were discussing on one of the books, one of my colleagues who liked my reading habit, expressed that she herself was not interested much in reading. She would read only when she had to do some documentation at the office. That was her normal reading. She then proceeded to advise me to be practical than being just a reader.

Well, since then I kept thinking about her comment and my conclusions are in contradiction to hers. I think a person who does not read can be compared to an illiterate person, despite the fact that he/she might be well educated. Mark Twain said, “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read.”

Being practical without reading is worthless. I think that such a person is vulnerable. I speak this from my own experience. Katherine Patterson extends this argument when she says, “It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations–something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.” It is important to read and develop an informed world view.

Every day I meet different types of people from different places, and most of them are busy with no space or time to even talk with self. Strangely however, when they pick up the news paper, their eyes hardly move around till they reach the last page! How is it then that these same people find it difficult to open a book? Confucius says, “No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”

Then there is a certain category of people who do “time-pass” reading or just for entertainment. Then don’t bother about value added reading. The choices and decisions that they make in life can easily be made out from their life-style, their talk, and their motto. Their reading habit (or the lack of it) clearly influences their decisions. Elbert Hubbard while speaking about his country puts it mordantly and says, “This will never be a civilized country until we expend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.”

Though Hubbard’s concern is more about ‘lack of reading’, but then, we cannot say that people do not read at all. Can we? People may not be reading good books, but they are always reading fiction, magazines, tabloids and I think I should add here hoardings, banners et cetera too. Each of these media has its dedicated readership and definite impact.

Schools, colleges and universities lack in efforts and thrust in developing better reading habits in the students. I think the status of the educational institutions should not be measured by percentage or good physical structure, but should be measured by the level and the kind of reading of the students. Abraham Lincoln said, “A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.” Harry Truman says it better and takes it to a higher pedestal when he says, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”

Many times we face a great struggle when we encounter a situation wherein a change in our thinking is called for, because our mind has never become a production place for producing good thoughts. A good reading habit can help us here. P. J. O’Rourke emphasizes the impact of a good book on a person’s thought and his very life when he says “Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.”

When I became serious about reading, I realized about two the “Ws” and the one “H.” What to read, Why to read and How to read? I can say this made me more practical in my life. It definitely kept me from aimless reading. Reading without purpose or an applied method is like sailing a boat in the sea without sails or direction! I think no one can emphasize it better than Thomas Jefferson when he says, “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” Its better not to read than to read aimlessly!

A good reading habit helps us develop good thinking patterns that build not only our personality but also good character. A.C. Grayling said, “To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”

So read.

Tags: A.C. Grayling, Abraham Lincoln, Confucius, Elbert Hubbard, Harry Truman, Katherine Patterson, Mark Twain, P. J. O’Rourke, Reading habits, Thomas Jefferson

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Addictions, Articles, Purpose of Life, Quotes, Richard, Society, Thoughts, Trends, Troubles & Problems, Youth Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.