Why you should read books? Expecting nothing - Mindfulness Lesson
- Magical Mindful Living
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
I was having a discussion with my friend the other day about reading, in general. I told him that I no longer enjoy a novel, like I used to do in earlier days. I enjoy reading non fiction, as it creates more value to my life, anything from mindfulness, biology to geology, even little bit of mathematics, help me model a new world. On the other hand my dear old friend still loves reading novels. He deeply thought about what said and agreed that novels bring less value to life. But, that was irrelevent, as values are purely relative to ones own consciousness, novels make no sense only when messured in my yard of messure. So, coming to conclusion that novels are not valueble is totally not helping. We agreed to disagree on our values and that was a correct choice.
Why you should read books? Common answers
But have you ever thought about it before? Have you ever thought why you should read a book?
Let's list some of the answers we can come across if we put the question in front of 1000 people sample. Why you should read books?
1. **Improves your focus and concentration**
Reading trains your brain to stay with one task without distraction.
2. **Expands your knowledge**
Every book teaches you something new — ideas, facts, perspectives.
3. **Builds a stronger vocabulary**
You naturally learn new words and improve communication.
4. **Boosts creativity**
Books spark imagination and help you think in new, original ways.
5. **Reduces stress**
Reading slows your mind and gives you a mental escape.
6. **Improves emotional intelligence**
Stories help you understand people, feelings, and relationships better.
7. **Strengthens memory**
Following plots, characters, and concepts exercises your memory.
8. **Enhances critical thinking**
Books make you analyse situations, arguments, and decisions more clearly.
9. **Helps you become a better writer**
You subconsciously absorb structure, grammar, and style.
10. **Builds discipline and a growth mindset**
Consistent reading develops patience, routine, and self-improvement habits.
Of course this is a chatGPT generated list of 10 things. However we can say these are the common reasons why anyone would read a book. Or even read anything for that matter. Think about why you are reading this article now? You are looking for something right? Entertainment? Spark of knowledge? Some understanding about life? But here is what I think about reading..
Why you should read books expecting nothing?
All of the above and thousand others which you can come up are wrong reasons for reading a book. Infact the moment you are expecting something by reading a book you are not going to get it. As no any book is giving you everything you need to know. And remember this is just a metophor. You can still enjoy reading a novel. That is not the point. The point is when you have this pre-determined outcome of your reading, you are going to create a bar-for your own book, and after reading the novel either it will be more and less valueble than you initially thought and this will either create happiness or dissapointment. So if you want to avoid dissapointed reading books, do not expect anything from your reading, before you read. But, here is another thought after you read your book, it doesn't matter it is good or bad as you have already read the book.
Expecting nothing from life - mindfulness lesson.
Now, lets compare this with our lives. Everything we do in our lives we expect something. But, isn't it the wrong reasons? Just like reading a book expecting something, we go to the school to get good education, but not everyone gets it. We go to a new job expecting happiness and more money -> not everyone gets it. We go to the grocery shop to buy cheap stuff, not everything is cheap. If you want to stop disspointing yourself in life, there is one way to do that and you can do it today. Just now. Stop expecting your life would improve after reading this article. As, even after thousands of these articles you would still feel the same.
Just to let you know this is my 531 such article. And the first one that I am quite sure I do not expect anything from it.
What a wild coincidence that across the globe you decided to write about this topic today!
Having spent almost all my adult life preferring non-fiction books, two days ago something strange happened. I walked into the bookstore and was drawn to the fiction book shelves. So many of the books were adorned in covers with engaging drawings.
However the non-fiction shelves, many filled with books decorated with photos of celebrities from various walks of life, repelled me.
I marveled over this occurrence and wondered how events in my current stage of life may have contributed to it.