Why do we need books? The answer is simple to assuage thirst we must drink. To feel water we have to wade, darting from shore won’t satiate us.
The ocean of knowledge and sapience has reached us through the rivers of books, rock and rolled from the finest of the marbles. Books have safeguarded in their bosoms, civilizations, cultures, traditions, values, knowledge and the mystery of every speck of dust in this infinite universe.
There are myriad genres of books which help us to develop different skills such as literature, philosophy, anthropology, science, mathematics, cosmology, travel, religion, medicine, history etc.
Books play a climacteric role to recognize our potential, develop social skills and perspectives, and help us to grow emotionally, mentally, and economically. They also help us to develop communicative and other linguistic abilities to make us marketable.
Books have a solution to every problem, answer to every doubt, and question to every hypothesis. They are Polaris to steer us in the darkest night of our life’s voyage.
A house without books is as spooking as a cemetery pervaded with people but devoid of life and books as irises blooming and wafting aroma but far from the reach of the dead. Since yore books have conformed as the beacon
In the darkest phases and aided civilizations to illuminate the flambeaus. However, men seem to cut their olfactory senses to inhale the lignin and are hell-bent to be biblioclastic due to the haze of ignorance. The book is the thin line that untangles light from the gloaming.
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelt out is a spark.” —Victor Hugo
In the contemporary era where people are turning into robots and robots into humans, ensue in inhuman rites and are evolving as fragile varmints to tackle any strain, handle any pest and embark on a journey, only to cave to the problems.
It is the need of the hour, to teach people life lessons and expose them to traditions, cultures, history and ethical values to understand their quiddity and which can do it in the best possible way than books where treasures are locked up waiting for us to put the keys in the keyhole and gather the gems.
Books expose us to the outside world, extend our horizons and act as portals to connect with the unknown. They not only apprise us about things but teach life- ordeals, fear, love, anger, compassion, empathy, sympathy, challenges, hard work, investing time, struggles, optimism, dismay, confidence, patience, faith, belief in the instincts and have never yielding spirit like Santiago in “The Old Man and the Sea” Who despite confronting challenges and setbacks still has an undefeated nerve and continues to do whatever he must do to the best of his ability, no matter what tribulations befall him and proves” Man can be Destroyed not Defeated”
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” – Jhumpa Lahiri
The advancement of science and technology has revolutionised our lives. And brought ease and comfort but at the cost of something beyond our imagination. One of them is that it has taken from us- The book-reading culture. Our Link with the Past, present and Future. To converse with people, live cultures, adopt values, smell creativity, and admire innovation. Book reading is not a mere sport, it is like drinking from the Kauser and assuaging the quenchless thirst and fiddling with words like a blacksmith who moulds iron in his smithy and shapes infinite novel tools.
Book reading is treading with poets, thriving with novelists, bathing in the Nile of history, fighting along Alexander, discovering clefts, travelling in the multiverse, looking for parallel selves, making time travels, finding treasures and the elixirs, going on expeditions for Holy Grail, digging the past and travelling through hearts. Books would grow up our imagination and creativity, develop ingenuity and rise flames of innovation. They help us to be everything that is otherwise impossible in this ephemeral life – we can be Dr Faustus, Griffin of invisible man, Santiago of Old Man and the Sea, Kurtz Of Heart Of Darkness, Ulysses, Sherlock Holmes, Atticus Finch and everything to everybody.
“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” – Fahrenheit 451″
Every book sets forth multiple airs and an avid reader will learn to develop his own, identify his identity, seek his self, his distinctive knacks and be the best version of himself.
To deal with some modern mental health problems arising due to advancements in life such as anxiety, sleep disturbance, relationship distress, depression, negative feedback loop, trauma, etc besides other modern restoratives, book reading can act as a key remedy to these maladies.
Modern man’s dependence on gadgets especially smartphones is catastrophic and increasing screen time is not just affecting our creative dexterity but making us sluggish, infirm, eunuch and whatnot which eventually opens doors to infinite pandemonium. Whereas man is inebriated and fails to see the damage, books are the only rescue that shall wake him from intemperance. Teach him the meaning of life.
This is high time we open the eyes of our minds and let the scent of books pass through our senses and wake us from inebriation to see the clear skies of vision and passion.

The author can be reached at [email protected]

Umar Amin