Originally Published in https://majumdarbookreviews.asia
"Unlocking the Benefits: 5 Reasons Why Book Reading is Essential"
Like most of us, I was introduced to books by my parents in my childhood. My late father Prodip Mazumder was a lecturer in a college and was a vivid reader. I use to see him read books, either bought from book Stalls, book fairs or borrowed from the library. I saw him read books mostly on the subject of political sciences.
I remembered a night when I woke up and saw that my father’s table lamp was still on. I peeped inside to see him make notes from books. This was the culture which prevailed when I was a child. My mother went to a book shop one day and she ordered for the entire collections of famous poet Rabindranath Tagore, which then adorned the book shelf.
While most Indians have read Tagore, his thoughts, his philosophies, we seldom apply the same in our real lives. However, when we face tribulations, troubles and depression, we remember philosophies of humans who have said many things about life, years back and brought to us through a medium named ‘books’.
So, what is it that we gain from reading books? What did interest my father, who use to stay awake late in the night to read books?
Is it not good that we see a movie, a film series or we just play an online digital game or just log in to a social network or just hear a story and make life wonderful?
The question lies, has our lives become delightful, after all these technologies which says that they have made our lives easier? Is it not great that we have two memories, one our brain, which we have given the permission to forget anything at any point of time i.e. matters which are not relevant to us and dump those information into artificial memory devices — laptops, computers, phone memories, hard disks etc? Do all these technologies have stopped all our worries? Does the global index of happiness have increased? Well perhaps we are the best judge about these things.
Personally, I feel that we have made our life more complicated. The stress factor and competition have increased manifold because now we are choosing to compete beyond our regions. We are comparing with others cultures and we feel that we need to be highlighted like a Hollywood star, otherwise our lives are a failure. Strange thoughts and increased stress have made everyone to stop meeting in the open. However, we are happy to meet virtually.
All these technologies have made our life easier and thus many parts of our bodies need to be used. As per some, human embryos develop a tail between five and eight weeks after conception. The tail vanishes by the time humans are born. It is said that the remaining vertebrae merge to form the coccyx, or tailbone, which are no longer in use. Does that mean our secondary storages will one day become our only memory as we seldom now use our brain to remember things? Let me give an example, do we remember mobile numbers of our parents, if we do not have a phone book? Most of us think that either we just need to type ‘Mom’ or ‘Mother’ in one’s telephone or the call is instantly connected. If we do not have the phone, we are lost!
So, how does book reading help us and what opportunities it bring before us? Below are my personal thoughts, which many of you is likely to agree.
1. Reading a book helps us to connect through our imagination the thoughts created by the author. We get linked with the characters and through them we get connected with life. Much of the times, when we feel unhappy or are in pondering negative feelings, these book characters comes back to our memories and help us to get through those troubling thoughts. These may not happen with everyone but most of us remember one or the other lines from the book and get inspired to move on in life.
2. Reading books helps our brain to work and re-work. I personally feel that it’s a brain exercise. The nerves and the neurons need to pass information’s obtained by reading a book and somewhere or the other I feel it is stored. Scientists may agree or disagree but I personally feel that brain works better as we increase our reading habits.
3. Reading books lead to a kind of feeling which remains for months. What have you experienced after completing a book? Does that feeling persists over months? If yes, then this is what makes book reading exceptional. Whenever I read a book and complete the same, a kind of happiness persists, which I do not get when I watch a movie. The picture ends and the thoughts also terminates within an hour or so.
4. Reading books helps to increase one’s vocabulary. I generally write the words with their meanings, when I read. It helps me to understand a word and its uses. This is a practical way to understand a word and its meanings.
5. As per some researchers and an article posted in the web (details provided in the reference), reading helps to strengthen one’s brain and also strengthens brain neuron networks as per a study.
There are a lot more benefits of reading, like it helps in getting a good night’s sleep, which is common. Hence, reading books not only helps one to relax, gain knowledge, move to a fantasy world, get into the characters and their stories but also helps our thoughts, strengthens our brain activities and also help get over life’s problems. This is my personal opinions which I have learnt from my late father and also after reading about book reading benefits from various sources.
I suggest that everyone may please take at least 30 minutes of your time to read so as to make it a habit. The choice is yours. I have started doing the same for a year and this thought gave birth to this website.
Thank you readers for your time to read this article, which has my own personal thoughts, which you may agree or disagree.
I will request you to read my Book Reviews which are my personal thoughts about books at the website: https://majumdarbookreviews.asia
Thanks and Regards:
Mainak Majumdar, Book Critic
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