A very short but useful essay on the pleasure of reading books

Reading offers us several pleasures and they are not at all expensive. It does not cost much to have them. If time hangs heavy on our hands, we may pick up a book of short stories. We shall soon get lost in the story and we shall not know how time is passing. Reading light literature like novels and short stories brings us entertainment. Reading often helps in removing our gloom and collecting cheerfulness. When we are deserted by our friends and kith and kin, we can bank upon the company of books.

The companionship of books is sincere and faithful. Another pleasure provided by reading novels or poetry is the pleasure of escape. A book like Gulliver’s Travels will take its reader into a strange and unknown land where completely strange creatures live. Our daily life often becomes routine and boring. To cut ourselves off from it for a short time, we may read some romantic novel which will take us to some fairly land. One more pleasure is the pleasure of identification.

When we are reading the adventures of some hero or adventurer, we get so much lost in the next that we become forgetful of our surroundings. We happen to identify ourselves with the hero. Reading also stimulates our brain, and widens our outlook. A well read man cannot afford to be shallow, narrow and fanatical in his outlook.