If you open a book, you open a treasure house of wisdom and knowledge. Untold wealth is obtained by reading good books. There goes a saying “A man is known by the company he keeps” but the idea put differently will be even nearer the truth “A man is known from the books he reads.”
A book is an unfailing friend. A good book entertains, enlightens, warms and dispels boredom. They are books available on thousand the two subjects. Books are always ready to advise you when you seek advice from them.
Habit of reading books is a good habit. Once this habit is made, it is deep routed and is difficult to get rid of and it need not be got rid of. As already said, a person’s library reveals that man as the face reveals the heart.
By reading books, a good reader lives not only in the present but also he lives the past and is even transported into the unrevealed future. A good book may be compared to a light house which lights the path, which guides the lost travelers, and takes care of those whose ship is wrecked. Books console in sorrow, condole with us in bereavement, add to the enjoyment and assuage the heart aches. There is no power greater than that of books, which can uplift a man, morally, intellectually, mentally and even physically.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Like all other habits ‘Reading’ also is a good servant but a bad master the habit of reading if carried to an excess, becomes a curse. There are books which like true guides dispel the darkness of ignorance. The habit of reading books should best be formed while wrinkles have not yet replaced the smiles.
A good book will be a source of knowledge and inspiration. Except the books that preach anti-social elements, and crime against humanity, no book is bad. To quote Oscar Wild “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written and badly written that is all”
Though there are good books and there are bad books yet the motive, the intentions with which a particular book is read is all that matters; “reading maketh a full man”, says Bacon. A wise man will seek and find wisdom even from a bad book just as a fool can find folly from a store of wisdom.
There is nothing good or bad, thinking makes it so. Read! Read! Read! Whatever book you can, lay hand upon and extract from it whatever wisdom it can give you, throw away the husk, the peel, the rind some books have, like thinner husk of some fruits. But, however thick the husk is, there is some substance under the covering, however rough, smooth, thick or thin it may be. He who is anxious to learn would learn from any book.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
A certain foolish person was training a donkey to talk, but however hard he labored, the animal, did not, or did not like to learn to speak. One day a wise man told him, ‘gentleman if the donkey does not learn from you to talk, you yourself should learn from him to be silent’. Yes, the books can teach anyone who approaches them with an open mind to learn something.
A seeker of truth, knowledge and wisdom will learn these sentiments from any book as a seeker of ignoble sentiments will learn them from even the best books. The habit of reading books enables any one to learn something, from any book he reads. There are books available on science, medicine, astronomy, art, literature, history, travel, nature and natural objects, novels dramas, fiction including some humor, poetry, epics, religion, psychology and grammar all these books contain enormous store of knowledge; all that is needed is the cultivation of reading habit.
When one is on one’s way, one may achieve knowledge or may stumble against knowledge. Gold can be struck in gold mines wherein it abounds most or in the sands on the sea shore or deserts where it exists “like a needle in the hay stalk”. Great knowledge is hidden in books; only one has to read and dig out that gold, and to find out that gold, the habit of reading books should be cultivated, developed.