By Kiriti Chandan Chavadi
Bangalore

Reading Books has long been listed in the list of hobbies by millions of people in their resumes. It is considered to be amongst the top 3 Hobbies in the world. This proves that people love to read books and when there is a passion for something, it grows into a habit and thus the love for reading books has been a favorite for lots of Book lovers.

The human mind is a very large computer with such huge capacity that it needs huge loads of knowledge to digest and people who are interested in reading books are a happy lot to get their mind satisfied to some extent. Various people have different tastes and likings in their choice of reading books. Some may like fiction; others may be interested in non fiction or real time stories, autobiographies or spiritual books. There is a vast ocean of knowledge in any kind of book one may choose and Books have always been a man's best friend in happiness or sorrow.

Numerous researches have taken place to find out if there is any valuable or positive thing associated with reading books of his choice (fiction) not necessarily related to his work. This has now been proved that reading books is definitely a good choice as it helps the brain to relax and in some part of the brain it has also shown several improvements in the thinking pattern of the person as he reads the book which helps to integrate with his work culture and his leisure boosting his capacity to the maximum benefit. And this may be one reason why people would spend hours together on a novel and hardly 10 minutes on the Economics Text book.

People who read fiction tend to like the tale that is narrated descriptively which allows their mind to wander into the surrounds of the book characters. In doing so, they involve themselves along with the characters, the house, furniture and the garden etc and react to the situation, act or deed as if it is happening to them in reality. One such research has established as to how the brain patterns work when a person feels if he is reading about words like "perfume" "tantalizing" "coffee " etc and how he reacts to other words like "a tiresome day" "French window" "picturesque view" etc. The former set of words sends a signal to the brain and it reacts by feeling the aroma or the taste whereas the latter set of words seemed just a dry description. It means that the reader forms a picture inside his mind as he reads along and therefore the effect is stronger. The person who reads only can understand the highs and lows in a particular novel and can actually experience the fun of reading. No such occurrence can happen by watching a movie or the television even if it is well narrated.

Reading a novel can make a person view in whatever way he imagines and it is fully satisfactory to him as long as he enjoys the story which cannot happen in any other media. The famous fiction novels include Mills & Boons in the romance section, Sidney Sheldon series in the thriller, Earl Stanley Gardener's Perry Mason Series, Sherlock Holmes as Detective, etc. In this world of technology, electronic media is entirely on a higher hand with the advancement of Internet, World Wide Web, and Blogs etc. But this does not mean the death of the traditional Book reading. Whatever be the medium, reading a book either physical or online, the important thing is the value with which it is associated and the sense of satisfaction which nobody can steal.

Reading an autobiography has its own benefits like a person's life history is penned down with the author's personal touch towards his experiences and his learning or findings during his journey of life.
Many people would love to know the details of such a person's life where they may borrow a few deeds into their lives. Usually people tend to read great personality's autobiography as they are famous people with a great following like Mahatma Gandhi's The Story of My experiments with Truth, Swami Vivekananda Biography, Sri Aurobindo's Biography, Works of Sri Shankaracharya etc.

Reading should be encouraged by the parents to their kids' as early as from the age of 5. They can start with fairy tales like Cinderella, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel or even small cartoon books like Phantom comics or Mandrake the Magician or the Famous Archie and the latest Harry Potter series. Aesop's Fables are popular for their moral stories so are our Indian counterparts in Akbar and Birbal, Tenali Ramakrishna etc. Once the children get the taste of reading books, the habit will lead them to explore The Famous Five, Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Mystery Series. Several stories like The Three Musketeers, Sinbad the Sailor, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Far from the Madding Crowd, Shakespeare's Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet etc... have thronged the audiences for all times. There seems to be an endless list as to how many authors have described the novels to every person's penchant and liking.

Some have interests in reading non-fiction books like those inspired by Anne Frank Diaries, Stephen King's on Writing etc. It may also be some kind of science oriented magazine or a research paper on some invention or some documentaries, travel books, journals, essays, photographs or diagrams etc. Some critic writers like Shobha De, Chetan Bhagat, Arundhati Roy etc are known for their articles as they signify a different perception by criticizing in good spirits. Reading can be anything from reading the regular Newspapers or any specific article in the Newspaper or it may be some weekly magazine or a fortnightly. There is such a gigantic library to choose from for both the young as well as the old.

How it actually feels to read a book is entirely left to the reader himself and it is his decision to perceive something as good or bad. One book may be liked by many but the same book may be distasteful to a larger lot. This does not mean that the book can be rated bad as it is negative in the minds of the majority of the people. Books are such that you can take them wherever you go and start whenever you wish, in the train or at the bus stand and when one is about to finish a book, he may even take it to the dining area or even just forget the food. There is a book for everyone and every one should desire to develop this habit in order not to lose the treasure of some very great minds. This divine feeling can be felt only by the avid book reader himself.

Books are such that you can take them wherever you go and start whenever you wish, in the train or at the bus stand and when one is about to finish a book, he may even take it to the dining area or even just forget the food. There is a book for everyone and every one should desire to develop this habit in order not to lose the treasure of some very great minds. This divine feeling can be felt only by the avid book reader himself.