Is Reading for Pleasure Beneficial?
“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man.” said Francis Bacon. The above quotation implies that in the process of being an exact man first comes reading. It equips a man with knowledge to make his mark in life.
Books are written by learned persons. They contain the rich experience and thoughts of their authors. By reading books written by the great thinkers, we come into contact with the greatest and noblest minds. They broaden our knowledge and make us sensitive to the feelings of others.
Pleasures of reading are immense. If we are in a cheerful mood, our joy increases through reading. If we are depressed, it comforts us and encourages us. When we are alone, books are our best friends. They entertain us during our leisure. Books give us the best advice and guidance in times of trouble.
Good reading presumes judicious choice also. As Bacon says, “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested”. So for gaining pleasure and profit, developing a good reading taste is a must.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:30 am
Not any more. Now, everyone writes, and much of it is trash.
In fiction, a good title, an interesting 2nd line bite, and you open it to tales with no plot, incomplete storylines, wavering direction, abomnable spelling, bad-even-non-existent words, pages filled with verbal porn and worn-out curses which used to be items of exclamation and are no more, just language laziness instead of seeking a proper word. and ….
In reference and knowledge books, we get bad copies of old and proven methodology, very poorly thought out and less clearly enunciated versions of how to do anything. Even our computer Help Sections fail to offer new advise for what to do if something happens. They merely repeat what you didn’t understand in the first place. Steps are left out of what are published as step-by-step manuals because the gurus think everybody knows what they know and can’t deal with the newcomer who is starting from scratch – not even knowing the acronyms of the current specialty fields.
Yes, I hate most TV- blood and guts, doctor drama, new super support for selfishness, and new ways to kill to get what you want, killing all respect for family values as well as family members and friends or just anybody –and it is painful to realize what I expected to be worthwhile hasn’t been edited and is filled with stultifying under-achiever slang and bromides.
So Francis Bacon needs to come back and edit in the word “Some” before “books” as there are also those that are poison and should be avoided at all cost – for there is no value to sickening the mind just because the poison comes in a ‘book’.