As a kid, I remember being told that reading was very important and that I should read more books. As most kids do, I dismissed that lesson as “just something older people like to repeat”, and in hindsight, I don’t feel like I can really be blamed for it. The same explanations were always given when I asked them why reading was so important:
Reading is so important, you don’t even know
or maybe some of this:
Reading is important because it develops the mind
and even a bit of this:
Because it makes you smarter
some would even throw the good old “knowledge is power”.
While these were all true to a certain extent, they didn’t motivate me enough to read. Sure, it answered what I would gain from doing it, but there was just no reasons provided that were compelling enough to make me read. Not to mention that for a kid, you’re usually more interested in living the moment than thinking about your future.
Fast-forward a decade or so, and I did find my own reason as to why I should read whenever I get the opportunity: Life is short.
I feel like our train of thought regarding life would look like this on a timeline:
The one thing knowledge can’t best is time. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, eventually, time will get the best out of you. A good example of this is how elders seem to like saying to younger people “I wish I had your age but with my experience”.
It turns out all of us eventually wish we could start over with all the knowledge we accumulate in a lifetime. If only there was a way to do that.
There is: read books.
I’m not talking about these books who tell you how to become successful, these books are usually clickbaits.
Reading is important, because some books contain the amalgamation of an author’s life.
Let me explain, some books are the result of an author’s lifetime, condensed into a book that you can read in mere days, which is, need I remind you, a period much shorter than a lifetime. Even if you don’t fully agree with what the author portrays, being aware of another’s perspective is still a very worthwhile investment of your time.
While the above applies to only some books, the same can be said about educational books: they were made by one or multiple people all so that you, the reader, can read it and learn from their experience.
The true strength of humans comes from being able to pass down knowledge throughout the ages. By passing down that knowledge, future generations do not need to re-invent the wheel constantly. This is what I believe truly sets us apart from other species – we are able to conserve what we learn and move forward without having to start over every time.