IMPORTANCE OF READING BOOKS

 In the course of human history, about 130 million books have been published; an avid reader will, at most, read 6,000 of them. Most of them won't be particularly enjoyable or memorable. Like individuals, we encounter numerous books, but we fall in love extremely infrequently. Maybe only thirty novels will actually define us. Each of us will experience them differently, yet they will all have a similar impact on us.

 The main, and sometimes unanticipated, benefit that books provide for us is a simplification. We consider literature to be intellectual, so it sounds strange. However, there are effective ways that books organize, clarify, and in this sense, simplify our worries.

In its essence, a book is vastly more simplistic than an actual experience since it tells a story. The author leaves out a great deal that ought to have been included because it is constantly there in life out of need. In the storyline, we go swiftly from one crucial event to the next, but in real life, there are countless side stories that divert and confound us. In fiction, the major events of marriage play out over a few dozen pages; in real life, they take place over a period of several years, interspersed with countless business meetings, vacations, hours spent watching television, conversations with one's parents, trips to the store, and dental visits. The chaos of existence is corrected by the condensed logic of a narrative, which makes the connections between occurrences much clear. 

Writers frequently explain a lot of things as they go along. They frequently illuminate the reasons behind a character's actions; they divulge individuals' hidden thoughts and motivations. Compared to the people we really meet, the characters are considerably more precisely defined. On the page, we encounter more noble antagonists, courageous and resourceful heroes, and characters whose sorrow is more pronounced or whose virtues are more conspicuous than is typically the case. They give us more straightforward goals for our emotional lives by their acts and behavior. They are easier for us to love or hate, sympathize with, or condemn than our friends and acquaintances.

We require simplification since the complexity of our life exhausts our intellect. On a few, very important occasions, the writer is able to put into words emotions that we had long struggled to express since they are more acquainted with us than we are. They appear to be telling our stories, yet they do it with a clarity that we could never match.

Literature improves our innate lack of articulation. So frequently, we are at a loss for words; we are moved by the sight of a bird circling in the evening sky; we are conscious of a certain atmosphere in the morning; we adore someone's slightly out-of-control yet understanding demeanor. We find it difficult to express our emotions in words and may instead say, "That's really great." For us to be able to explain our sentiments, they seem too complicated, nuanced, nebulous, and elusive. The perfect writer focuses on a few arresting details, such as the angle of a wing, the gradual movement of a tree's greatest branch, and the angle of a smile's mouth. Simplicity makes life more obvious rather than betraying its complexity.

The best authors help us connect with those we might have previously written off as being too odd or uncaring. They get to the heart of what people have in common. They highlight the significant similarities we have through selection and emphasis. They point out the areas to look at.

They assist us in feeling. We frequently want to do the right thing, to care, to feel loving and tender, but we are unable to. In our everyday lives, it appears there is no appropriate outlet for our feelings to express themselves. Our interpersonal ties are too unstable. Being overly kind to someone who might not return the favor can seem too hazardous. As a result, we stop feeling and become frozen. But after meeting someone in a novel, perhaps someone who is young, lovely, vulnerable, and dying, we begin to cry for both her and the injustice and cruelty in the world. And we leave feeling renewed rather than devasted. 

Not every book will necessarily include the simplifications we require. Frequently, we are not in a position where we can benefit from the information a book has to offer. Newspapers and friends often recommend books to us because they are successful for them without fully considering how they can also be successful for us. This challenge of matching the appropriate book to the right person at the right moment has not yet received the attention it merits. However, when we chance to find the perfect book for us, we are given a remarkably clearer, more coherent, and better-organized account of our own worries and experiences; at the very least, for a while, our minds become less foggy and our hearts become more precisely sensitive.