Why We Should Read

" A man is himself, plus the books he reads" a great quotation from S. Parkes Cadman. Through the medium of good books we are able to converse with the wise and the great of all ages. The inspired writers of the Bible, the historians, biographers and poets of past and present .They are the many voices telling us what multitudes of people that have lived before us, what they have said, done and thought. Through reading of good books we are passing through the vast seas of time, enabling the people of one age to participate in the wisdom and illuminations of another. They resurrect the past for us and makes us anticipate the future.

Many of the world's illustrious men reached intellectual heights despite of the fact that they were too poor to attend school or physically or intellectually challenged from the get go. But through the silent teachers who lived in books, which the habit of reading they nurtured, they achieved success in each field they pursued. Think of Abraham Lincoln who walked forty miles just so he could borrow a book he could not afford to buy. Napoleon Bonaparte was the last of his class. But later in life achieved outstanding military success mainly because he doggedly read and studied while his companions slept.

Consider this, what would have happen if the great inventor Thomas Edison didn't read and familiarized himself with other inventor's discoveries before him? You guess it right, he would have been an unknown second rate mechanic. Yet he saved time by reading what others have laid out before him and continue where the other inventors have left off. Thus he gave the world so many useful inventions. Without the record of other's past accomplishments preserved for us in books, we could not interpret the present or anticipate the future.

If and when confusion, doubts and ignorance plague you, don't hesitate to go to the library and pore over a good volume or with the click of the mouse open up a good e-book. Commune with the wisest souls who ever lived. Call any number of wise counselors to help you. They come willingly at your call. They in the kindest way, tell their convictions with no knowing looks, no prying questions, no snitching. If we interrogate them, they conceal nothing. If we misunderstand them, they never grumble, if we are ignorant they will not laugh at us.

So go grab one of the best volumes, read them, meditate upon them, hug them to your heart until they soak unto your soul and make you wise and rich and strong.