• Reading exposes you to experiences you may ever get to encounter in your life.
Living in a tropical country where there is no snow, and is never going to have any snow feels... boring. Most countries have 3 or 4 seasons a year, which kind of cues different feelings per season and often feels like a new beginning/new chapter! Winter is always about Christmas or gloomy weather, Spring about newness and new beginnings, Summer is like sunny and warm and time for fun, Autumn is like the time of harvest, all that. We Singaporeans get none of that. We have well, 365 days of all-year-round summer. We do have rainy seasons but they're usually like say a week of half-day heavy thunderstorms, and the rest of the day is like super-hot sun (that just really kills you) to get all the water off the country evaporated for the next thunderstorm in 12 hours. Hmm!
SNOW is pretty damn fascinating for a Singaporean, or at least for me, and books get me a few steps closer to the very experience of the first few snowflakes that fall from the sky when the season arrives. Authors always have such beautiful imagery of snow-capped houses/trees and the biting cold, and the wonderful comfort of entering your house with a piping-hot fireplace with fresh wood chopped from the forest (or a heater). Basically, THE GREAT OUTDOORS - which Singapore really doesn't have the land space for. If we're cold, we turn off our fans. If we're feeling warm, we turn on the air-conditioner. Life has been simplified to just that. Haha. I think I'm always curious about the phrase "every snowflake is unique" and really want to get to see and touch a real snowflake sometime in the future.
Okay, next. Books always portray independent living as the representative of "finally becoming an adult" - the fun and excitement and thrill of living alone in a rented apartment and being independent and living completely out of your own pocket. If that's the Asian definition of adulthood, then we Asians are probably all adolescents haha. (E.g. practice is, most of us move out after marriage) I'll never experience that naturally (e.g. deliberately going to another country and doing that is different from being born to have that practice) and books give me that. Living vicariously through another's life? Check.
• Reading lets you explore your imagination.
Books come alive as much as your own ability to imagine them to be realistically possible. Books teach you to see deeper, imagine more, visualize more detailed and colourful imagery. As you read more and more, you begin to understand more about the human condition and see more than just yourself, your own self-centred needs and desires, and think about the big picture, Life itself, where you're going in life, and the whole idea of Purpose.
• Reading teaches me NEW words, BIG words, and how to use them.
Reading a book is far more entertaining than reading an educational magazine such as The Reader’s Digest, and National Geographic. Although I find both magazines interesting enough that I am quite willing to thumb through it for an hour without falling asleep, most people do find the amount of words, small font size, with no/few pictures, and lack of a juicy, sensationalized story line unattractive… And the only reason why they’d ever pick one magazine up is because well… “my teacher made me read 1 article from it” haha. They will also, only read that 1 article and put it down after. Haha.
Books > Newspapers ANY DAY. Frankly, newspapers are great. I’ve nothing against them. But they’re an "objective" (strives to be, at least) medium that doesn’t feel much for its content, and frankly can sound quite sadistic. “Men dies in fire”, is there any nicer way to word that? I mean, man, that’s literal. Dishing out truths flatly. Besides, newspapers also get my fingers dirty and slightly stained grey, which feels kind of gross, especially if I'm all bathed and clean and feeling fresh.
• Reading offers a new perspective on every single matter I read about in a book.
Life is not always about ME, ME, ME. You know how fictional descriptive stories are often written with 2 or even 3 perspectives (e.g. from the protagonist, the protagonist’s best friend, the protagonist’s boyfriend). All 3 perspectives often discuss the same topics, and similarly you can observe how different people behave, feel and react in the same situation. Some take things too seriously, some couldn’t care less. This teaches you to understand the concept that your way of thinking is certainly not the only way of thinking. So, books teach you to keep an open mind.
• Reading is a habit. Reading is a GOOD habit to cultivate.
Ok other than the fact that "unhealthy reading" possibly does deteriorate your eyesight... Haha. Cultivating a habit of reading helps you get along with reading long passages, university readings and educational, academic articles. We all know academic articles are possibly the most boring things on earth. 20-page PDFs with no pictures, with the only variation being headers and key points in larger font sizes. Starting small from short stories and working your way up to bigger and longer chapters and thicker books, help you get along further in your academic life! To me, it develops more efficient reading: Reading and understanding more in a shorter amount of time with lesser effort.
• Reading gains you new like-minded friends.
Striking up a conversation with someone you never expected to talk (so much) to and finding out that you guys read the same books, and you guys get along really well? Finding a new friend this unexpected way is... simply, GOLD.
• I’ve never met a writer who’s not a reader. Period.
And both readers and writers are damn attractive to me... (Sorry this is a shallow generalization but I’ll have to add this hahaha).
• I’ve never met a reader who wasn’t attentive to people’s words and what people say.
Readers tend to take people more seriously, and also make better listening ears. I suppose the association comes from the fact that if you’re able to sit down with a book for hours on end without your eyes fleeting about the room, getting distracted by random things that pass by “oh look! A butterfly!”, you’ll probably be a great/better listener. I wouldn’t say it’s a foolproof generalization that all readers are good listeners, but I still think they make better listeners than a non-reader any day.
• Reading teaches you how to empathize.
Sometimes you're just expected to know what to do in a chaotic situation but honestly don't know what to do with your hands? Reading exposes you to social situations you haven’t been stuck in before and gives you a little assistance in times when you’re expected to comfort someone or back someone up when they get stabbed in the back.
• Reading teaches you Boy Code and Girl Code, and general guidelines on what you shouldn’t do in Life – like say steal your best friend’s girlfriend/boyfriend, date your best friend’s ex girlfriend/boyfriend EVER in life, date your best friend’s brother (it’s cute, but it’s weird for your best friend, please)
• Last, but not least, reading teaches you about Life.
Life is not about yourself. Life involves people. Life involves relationships. Life involves emotions. We can’t go through life without learning to live with people, learning to deal with our relationships with our family members, lover, buddies and friends, and managing our emotions.
So, when you find yourself having a little spare time, pick up a bestselling book, prepare a sheet of paper should you not have a bookmark, and you're good to go. Reading is rewarding. Besides, Christmas is coming, and if you've no idea what makes a perfect gift? This one's pretty awesome.
Sorry I had to. Haha.
wow a great perspective! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletehi there, and thank you!
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