01. Education and Good Books

The world is indeed flooded with reading materials of every description. Most of the material is meant for imparting information, a lot is for entertainment and some few for enjoyment. In my opinion, books which I read for enjoyment alone are worth reading.

Though on the scale of "worth", I would not put it on the top, I realise that information gathering is important. The daily newspapers are essential reading to get a brief idea of what is going on in the world and which of these I need to know. Usually, I skim through it to get a brief idea of the type of news I am concerned about. I may want to know about the political and economic situation in the world, but I really don't need to know all the details. Hence, I will slow down and read in whole only that which concerns me. In all, I usually spend fifteen minutes reading the newspapers. If an interesting article or editorial deserves my attention, I may spend half an hour with the newspapers.

For additional information, I subscribe to The Economist. I believe that of all the periodicals, this is the one which gives serious views of the world. It gives much more information than the newspapers and its viewpoint is usually reasonable and often non-aligned. I usually finish reading an issue of The Economist in a day.

For entertainment, there are thousands of titles available. Most of them are fiction and paperback. They are written with one aim: To sell and get rich by. They have attractive covers and many are rehashed repeatedly from other success formulae, and almost all are calculated to rouse the senses and give cheap thrills. When stripped bare of all the sensational parts, the reader is often left with two covers. Except for a few like Frederick Forsythe and J.R.R. Tolkien, I will not touch any of them. Reading them is an absolute waste of time. For entertainment, I prefer to read books of nonfiction. These include biographies, history and psychology.

For my enjoyment alone, I will read the books that I consider are worth reading. These will be the classic books of all time. I do not have to spend a single cent to indulge in these. Weekly trips to the excellent public libraries will give me all the books I want to read. I will put aside the best reading hours—mostly late into the night—for this great pleasure. For non-fiction I will read books on philosophy and for fiction, the great classics of Dickens, Scott, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway and the works by the recent Booker Prize winners and Nobel Prize winners.

The joy of the challenge of reading precise language I will get from philosophy and the realistic characterisations of the classic writers will thrill me. Reading a good book is not like reading trash to arouse your senses. Reading a good book takes you on a journey. I share in the intimate thoughts of the writer who expresses what he wants to; and not what his readers Want him to express. He writes literature. He reaches the end of language and breaks through obstacles of expression. He is a pioneer, not a thrill arouser.

In my opinion, the books that I read for enjoyment and knowledge are the ones most worth reading.