Essay on the Pleasures of Reading
The habit of reading is fast on the wane. Television, Video and the Internet are mainly responsible for this. But there are still many readers all over the world who rightly recognize the value of books, and the pleasure that can be derived from reading a book. Pleasures derived from things like sports or eating are short-lived, but the pleasure derived from reading books is everlasting.
Most people take to light reading. Short stories and novels form a part of what they read. Such books provide light information and entertainment. They also help to improve the language and provide a good pastime.
Suspense and mystery stories thrill the reader and at the same time help develop intelligence and promote logical thinking. Some people like to read serious books. Today there are plenty of books dealing with science fiction and the supernatural.
These books make for very interesting reading. They also develop the imagination of the reader, who is taken from the ordinary world to the extraordinary one.To derive maximum pleasure from reading, one has to pass on gradually from comics to simple stories for children to detective and romantic novels and finally to good literature and the classics.
A good book is one that makes one think straight after the last page has been read. Once a child begins to enjoy reading, this habit persists throughout one's lifetime wherever one may be. Travel books transport us to distant lands, which we have never seen, and which we may never see.
We come to know about the lives of people far away from us. This broadens our outlook on life. Books written by philosophers and great personalities inspire youngsters to do better in their own lives. Few from the present younger generation enjoy reading, mostly because they have never had the time to actually develop this habit.
Children today are too busy with their school work, TV, the video and the internet. It is for the teachers and the elders at home to create in the young the urge and love for reading. Books are our best friends, so let us all develop the habit of reading. We will find that there are unlimited pleasures to be found between the leaves of books.