Why I Read...

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. At least, as the saying goes. But it is not enough as to the reason why I read a lot. My friends think I am such a bookworm. One of them even went to the extent and said that I would probably never stop reading till my grave!

Reading is not an exercise to the mind. It is an exercise for the reasoning mind. I learned a lot from reading. People seek knowledge while reading books that convey vital information. But not all books are of such kind. You have to search for books that interest you. You have to be intelligent enough to look out for credible authors, being able to give you the correct information without any bias, or bad logic.

Books are definitely the source of the knowledge I’ve gained this far. And it will be for the rest of my life. I want to write a book, fiction or non-fiction, in the future when I am ready. I have that much passion for books, especially non-fiction. I also read philosophical fiction, detective fiction, in the likes of Agatha Christie and Ayn Rand.

Non-fiction books have much to offer to the knowledge bank compared to fiction. If you want a good entertainment for your mind, go for fiction of any kind, romanticism, horror, comedy, suspense, thriller and mystery. If you want to experience some growth of your knowledge bank, go for non-fiction. But whatever it is, reading is a very good way of conditioning your mind.

As humans, we are very capable of thinking for ourselves. We don’t always have to rely on others and follow the crowd. Instead, we can devise our lives for ourselves. Such individualistic streak can be obtained from reading books critically. That’s because reading requires us to think about the issue or subject written on our own.

Reading is also an endless journey. After reading one book, the book itself will direct you to another similar or entirely different book. Or you may want to pursue similar topics in a different viewpoint. Reading widely, now that’s very important. You will gain more confidence about your intelligence by reading widely.

Well, everything will go fine if you read. But one thing you have to care of is your eyesight. Reading too intensely for long hours is very unhealthy for your eyes. At every 30-minute interval, you have to stop reading and look somewhere far. Relax your eyes. Then go back to your book. Or you can close your eyes at regular intervals for a while and rest. This will elongate your reading time. You don’t have to get tired easily and abandon reading just for that.