The joy of books
I love reading but in South Africa we pay exorbitantly high prices for books. I joined my local library years ago and whenever I feel like it I can get a pile of assorted titles free. I choose from the “recently read” or “librarian recommends” sections and often get books by authors I’ve never heard of. This means I read books that I’d never have thought to buy.
If you take out a book that, after the first few chapters, turns out to be a disappointment, you just give it back, no questions asked.
The Kindle is an amazing device but a book is better because you don’t need a password and it never runs out of battery life! When you’ve finished reading a book, you give it back to the library so they can lend it (free) to other readers to enjoy. MANDY CRERAR, KLOOF
SChaucer, Shakespeare and a variety of poets were thrust down our throats in our English literature classes at school.
It would drive me dilly trying to understand the hidden meanings. “Double, double, toil and trouble” the three witches in Macbeth would scream at me from the pages of the book as my mind wandered off to the latest Elvis movie.
Yet years later I appreciate the hours spent reading, comprehending and interpreting all these texts written by literary giants of a bygone era.
Reading opens the doors of the mind, leading to bigger doors and infinite possibilities. PETER BACHTIS, BENONI
SReading is an essential part of our lives. It broadens our horizons, to use a cliché. But nowadays people don’t value it. For people who don’t read, it’s much easier for them to engage in pessimistic activities such as drug and alcohol abuse, and crime.
When people read they not only reap knowledge and wisdom, they become sympathetic and kind-hearted. The reasoning ability of a reading person is more developed than that of one who barely reads.
As we approach the fourth industrial revolution we need to engage in constructive and fruitful arguments, and we can do that only by reading and observing all that surrounds us. YANDISA KROBANI, CAPE TOWN