“You’ve approximately spent six years of your life to read these books.” My dad commented after gazing at our (little) library. It holds about 300 books, for both children and adults. This comment led me to wonder whether I could’ve utilised this time for something more rewarding. This prompted another question -- whether all great figures were vivacious readers or thinkers?
I remember, when earlier I used to spend time playing games, my dad urged me to indulge in books. Now I just have to keep reading a book alongside my course to amuse myself. I think when he encouraged me to read, he meant course books. But of course, I realised it later. Within just a year I read the whole Secret Seven series, the Famous Five series and almost all the Nancy Drew books as well. I gobbled up one book a day, I am completely hooked to it. After a long day I prefer to go back to the banter between Bertram Wooster and Jeeves over anything else.
All for the good
And as all the articles and I agree, reading has improved my English a great deal. An avid reader like yourself, you must be wondering, how can you refute that reading isn’t always good? Well, let’s just say that I am simply putting my opinion forth. One day when I was reading Shakespeare, my dad barged into my room and asked where I had put his laptop. It suddenly dawned on me that I had forgotten to replace it, as per his instruction, after using it and I could explain. Actually, I was about to go replace it, but Taming of the Shrew seemed more inviting. The smell, the crispy pages. I just had to catch a few pages. It had been two hours since then. The task had slipped my mind.
Far too much?
And suddenly (out of rage I suppose) my dad snatched the book out of my hand. “Alas! The time cometh when he parts me from you!” my mind wailed. “What are you doing?!” I retaliated. He told me that I was spending far too much time reading fiction. “You’re Mr. Wormwood to my Matilda!” And no matter how much I cried, pleaded or coaxed him, he just wouldn’t budge.
Later when I got over my loss, he reasoned with me. He told me to take out my mathematics book, and I remorsefully complied. We did math for two hours and I got to learn so many new things. After the session, my father approached me. He told me that was the exact amount of time I had spent reading my book earlier. And I realised what I did with my time this time was more fruitful.
It’s a long-held myth that reading is always beneficial. It isn’t exactly always beneficial and as it is, its benefits don’t show as immediately as someone learning a new concept and applying it to solve a question. I understand all of us feel accomplished when we finish a book, but that triumph is short compared to solving a question and matching its answer. Reading builds our analytical thinking and expands our vocabulary, but are we ready to invest so much time just for this?
Question of focus
Reading a few hours daily is recommended by all, but let’s face it, it kills time. It is just a way to spend time when you’re bored, not what you should be doing when you’re required to do some work. It removes our mind from the important tasks that should be our priorities. It spoils our focus. To me now, it’s no better than watching TV for long hours. As TV is meant for entertainment, so are books. I believe that too much reading can destroy our own creativity.
If we indulge ourselves too much in others’ thoughts, we might lose our own ingenious ones. One ends up getting coloured by the authors’ view and sees the world with the tinted glass.
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