Should You Read Books?

“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” – Descartes

A few people I have met say that reading books is not worth their time. Reasons vary from not getting time to read due to their busy schedule, to lack of reasons to read since their “education is finished” in college, to feeling embarrassed to tell their “cool” friends that they read books.

So let us try to understand if reading books is required, or is it just a trend a few “nerds” are promoting!

As a human, your understanding of the world comes from things around you – friends, parents, teachers, people you meet, media you consume, the environment you grow up in, the difficulties you face when growing up, etc. These shape your reality, your dreams and aspirations, and most importantly your mindset for the rest of your life. 

If you are like most people who have grown up in this modern society, by the time you graduate from college and start working, most of your dreams, aspirations, and mindset have been reduced to – what your friends are doing, what your parents want you to do, and what the society expects you to do. 

With this mindset, the chances of making it big in life are very limited, almost nil. You tend to give up on a tough situation, professional or personal, at the first sign of trouble. You don’t know how to be consistent after you achieve a small success. Worst of all, you are afraid to venture out of your comfort zone to try something new.

This is when you decide, becoming great and living your dream life is not in your destiny, resign to your fate, and be content with living a mediocre life. 

So, how are books related to any of what I said?

Let me ask you, what do all the people who are highly successful in their domains have in common? 

You guessed it right – they all read books. Lots of them! And consistently!

Bill Gates when asked about his success and its relation to books, he said: “Reading fuels a sense of curiosity about the world, which I think helped drive me forward in my career and in the work that I do now with my foundation”.  And he reads more than 50 books every year.

Warren Buffet spends almost 80% of his day reading books, and says that anyone hoping to achieve similar success should read 500 pages a day.

Elon Musk said that he was raised first by books and then his parents. He mentions that most of the things he knows today he learned by reading books. 

There are many such examples of highly successful people, who attribute their success mainly to their consistent reading habits.

Reading books is essential for achieving great success in life. 

Now think about what will happen if you have books in your life. You will get exposed to new ideas and new ways of looking at existing problems in your life. You will start developing a positive attitude towards life, and realize that a temporary failure is not the end of the world as you thought before. 

More importantly, you get to learn lessons from successes and failures from the lives of successful people and implement them in your life.

While it is impractical to expect anyone to start with reading 500 pages per day like Warren Buffet, you can start with reading 20 pages per day, develop a habit of reading books, and become consistent at it. 

Next time before you say that reading books is not worth your time, think of what successful people like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk said about reading books! 

It is never late to start reading and inculcate a consistent reading habit.

As Margaret Fuller said, “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” 

I am currently reading a book. What about you?