“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.” – Mary Wortley Montagu
I love visiting the Bookstore. Some people like shopping, some like to fish. Me? I love visiting the bookstore.
Every bookstore is more or less the same. It’s a small place, hardly lager than my backyard. But within those few square-feet of space, there exist hundreds and thousands of worlds. Some are small and commonplace, like the town of Malgudi, while others are humongous, filled with extraordinary beings of 
Middle Earth. Some are bright, sunny places of hope and love, while some are dark and twisted alleyways of disputed moral consciousness. All of them cramped beautifully into those few square-feet.
That’s the beauty of books – they offer range! From Aristotle and Homer to Einstein and Hawking; from the achievements of leaders who built nations to those who put them to torch; from men who rose to fame and fortune to those countless thousands who died nameless in a pointless war; from the art of growing a vegetable garden to learning a new language in thirty days – it’s all there, and it’s overwhelming.
Apart from the entertainment value, books are extremely important for personal growth as well. It is a scientific fact that readers enjoy better verbal skills, concentration and focus. But more recently, studies have proven that those with a regular reading habit face much better at problem solving and critical thinking. Why? Because reading is to brain what exercise is to the body. And reading regularly improves your imagination and brain power!
Not only that. Reading greatly improves your memory and reduces stress. You literally grow smarter as you read. Consider this very article, for instance. You are reading this and by its end you’ll have learnt something you didn’t know before. How cool is that!
There are far longer lasting benefits of reading. Reading develops in you a taste for arts, and consequently, over a period of time transforms you into a saner, calmer, matured human being. It also helps you in rediscovering and reinventing you. Some character from somewhere will suddenly speak to you and it’ll be the spark that will ignite a flame of greatness in you.
But most importantly, you should read because ‘Smart is the new Sexy.’ Well read, well spoken, knowledgeable people have their own special charm, don’t they?
So go ahead, pick up a book and start reading, and become a smarter, more attractive and a better human being!
