Are you a bit confused reading this headline? Aren’t you thinking that how I will live a thousand lives just by reading books? Let me clear it with a famous quote.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”― George R.R. Martin
This quote is the base of the title and now I’ll explain to you why reading books mean living a thousand lives. Ready Steady Go…
Starting with the story of my life involvement with books. Earlier, I hardly ever read books, not even my academic books. I spent all my times on social media, phone or all other unproductive staffs. I had thousands of friends in social media, but only a few in real life. You know what, most of the times I was feeling frustrated, alone and all the negative thoughts came into my mind. Sometimes, I felt like, I’m done with this life. I started feeling down. Productivity in a workplace fell down. I went here and there, but my soul didn’t follow me. A Body without Mind.
I sometimes bought books from the library or from my friends, but only those I liked to read. After noticing everything, one fine morning, Pia told me to read books whenever I get time. She also bought few books for me. It was tough that time to read the books as I didn’t have that practice, but I started reading. I used to read 2 pages in a day. That’s the starting. Now it’s not impossible for me to finish a book in a day. I read every type of books. But this was not possible in a single day. I preferred to read books of my favorite writer first. You know why? Just to bring a change in my habit. Just to make reading as a hobby. Just to make reading easier. Now I can read anything. Because I converted reading from annoying to one of my most favorite hobbies. The most interesting thing is I roam around my mind, whenever I start reading. That’s what I couldn’t do, the days I didn’t read. I feel tired after whole day’s hectic workload, but I feel incomplete if I don’t read a single page each day. It might be a short article, but I love to read at least one in a day. That’s a big achievement in my life. Buying new books give me excitement than to buy gadgets nowadays. The smell of newly printed papers and the cover of the books… Aaah, it just drives me crazy.
“In books, I have traveled, not only to other worlds but into my own.” ― Anna Quindlen
Reading books or article nearly every day in last two years has increased my reading grasp. It also helped me to develop another important skill of mine. Guess what? It’s my writing skill. I’m writing like no one is reading. I’m hearing my mind and giving those a new life in my words. Reading and Writing is making me extrovert. It’s increasing my confidence and encouraged me to start writing more often. I am now writing blogs, I write Life Hacking blogs. People are reading my articles and I can see changes in their lives. Happy Me.
“There are only two ways, really, to become a writer. One is to write. The other is to read.”― Anna Quindlen
A book actually plays a key role in our lifetime. People say that books are the storage of confidence. Start reading books regularly, you’ll feel that. They are our friends in a real sense and ask nothing in return. They take us into a different world of imagination.
I’m pointing out few benefits of reading books:
- It will improve your living standard
- An encouragement when you are almost near to defeat
- A healthy habit
- Real Pleasure of life
Last but not the least, people will see you differently from rest of the ten-person. I mean, you’ll be loved by all.
In my sense, there is no choice comparable to the choice of reading books. It is a decisive satisfactory thing. You can find book lovers around you who read any printed matter– even as it might be a schedule when they get nothing else to read. The bookworm peoples are like this actually.
Do you know what can give you the utmost satisfaction in anyone’s life? If anybody asks this question, different people may answer this differently and applause aesthetic, intellectual, sensual or typical ethical pleasure as their precise choice. There is, however, no second opinion that the greatest pleasure of life comes from reading good books. Indeed, books bring immense joy and warmth, enlarge the frontiers of knowledge, widen the outlook and sustain the heart of the reader.
There is a common proverb that ‘reading is to the mind where exercise is to the body’. That’s why a cultured man is drawn to a good book more than he is drawn to any other form of entertainment like the social media, the television and so on. The choices derived from the latter may be also good, the effect is not as lasting and humbling as the effect of reading.
At the ending, I’ll simply suggest you read good books. Only a good book can give you the right direction in your life. Finishing with another Anna Quindlen quote from his highly popular book “How Reading Changed My Life”.
“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”― Anna Quindlen
Originally published at medium.com