Why you should read books & Why it won’t matter.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin
I grew up hating books. These horrible things had no picture in it. I wondered why people would even open it?
But I loved picture albums of my family. They told stories. I remember spending hours looking through the album and laughing at the pictures of my family.
If a photo album was my playground, a dictionary would be a dreadful place. Yes, I grew up with a dictionary in my bag. I so hate those curriculum makers for this. But still, I didn’t like reading much.
I am here to talk to you about books. Why you should read them & why it won’t matter.
It was until 2015 that I never touched a book outside of my course. I used to think, I don’t have enough time even to skim my textbook, where the hell will I get time to read a book? Plus since these books were boring, I bet those books are too. That’s how I used to feel. And I believe some of you might agree with me. But it all changed with one book.
“I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.” — Orhan Pamuk
This book was called, “The immortals of Meluha.”. It’s a fictional mythological book about a Hindu god named Shiva. The reason I loved this book was that I portrayed Shiva as a human being, with human tendencies. He was not a distance god-like figure anymore. He became someone we could emulate. This stimulated my hunger to read books.
Then It was summer of 2016 & I was with this girl. She was into books. I picked a book in Barnes & Nobel to impress her. Although she was not impressed by this gesture, I got impressed by the book. The book was named, “The Alchemist”.
The Alchemist introduced me with a boy named Santiago. He was also a character anyone could emulate. Suddenly I started seeing the world from the perspective of these characters and I started changing. More importantly I started observing myself,
What kind of character am I?
This curiosity lead me to read books. Now I started emulating real-life characters. Characters like Steve Jobs, Sadhguru, Robert A Glover, Ramit Sethi, Gary Vaynerchuk, Walt Disney. Suddenly I realized the power of a book. The transformation, a single book could bring in my life was astounding. I could bring my awareness into a subject that I was never aware of.
I can change my life. I can change my perspective.
So you get the first half, Why I would encourage anyone to read books as much as you can. But what about the other half? Why reading books won’t matter. Alright, let's take a dive together.
In my journey of reading books, I did come across some horrible books, that I would never recommend to anybody. But now I realize, It was not the book, It was me. I wasn’t receptive enough to appreciate the knowledge in the book. It was me. There was this one book name, “The power of habit”. I picked up this book in my early stage and it almost crushed me.
Reading a book must be your journey. You should find your own books and make your attention shift.
It’s like a medicine, what worked for me may not work for you.
I have stopped recommending a book to my friends because I know them. I know them because I know myself. I know what worked for someone else might not work for me.
Now even if you read a book, chances are you may not completely understand it. Let’s be honest here, I Don’t. Because there are some topics that need experience. Words can merely transcend the reader intellectually. We need to have the experience to change.
So even though books give you the direction. It’s your responsibility to walk on the path. The book won’t walk with you.
But If you have finished at least one book cover to cover, I salute you. You are just amazing. But even if you’ve never picked up a book I Bow down to you. Comming with me so far takes commitment. Thank you. I am so excited about how amazing you turn your life into.
