Read read read

 “Reading Is To The Mind, What Exercise Is To The Body” – a famous quote by English essayist, poet, and playwright, Joseph Addison, on the value of the mind.

Reading is not just about scanning the words until you come to a full stop. You will come to understand that authors do not just one day decide to sit down and write up something just because they want to, or feel like it. Every chapter requires vigorous effort and much more mental stamina than one can imagine. A book contains very strong emotions; the author conceals different representations of his/her soul behind those words. 

Books also give the reader a 4-Dimensional perspective to life. Books build a mental checkpoint in the reader's mind, which only filters and feeds vital information to the brain. A reader's perspective on life is very different from a non-reader's.

A reader can think outside the box and find a solution to a problem. And he goes away from that box to find one. The solution won't make sense to those who are thinking inside the box and around the perimeter of the box but overwhelms all the other solutions uniquely. 

Social media portrays the world very differently from what's in the books. You only see what you are allowed to see on social media. When an author writes down something, he doesn't just get the words out of the blue. There's more to those pages than just a storyline.

And you get to know different cultures spanning different civilizations and put yourself in different mindsets from different walks of life. Books allow you to think in different ways; to think like a politician, lawyer, engineer, or multi-billionaire. You can think like a thief or a murderer too (sometimes I get adrenaline rushes).

You can visit different countries without the need for a passport and visa. A traveler uses the sense of sight, aided by smell, taste, and hearing to register a place into the mind. By thinking like a traveler, a reader is already there. It is a personal experience.