I USED to believe that the Internet has replaced books and now one needs to go to a library and waste his time while searching for a bit of information.

Instead one needs the Internet to search for information. But thanks to one of my teachers who, with his strong arguments, made a paradigm shift in my viewpoint. He said that if there had been no importance of books at all, the people in the West would have stopped reading them and relied only on their handy gadgets. But this is not the case.

The book-reading culture is always encouraged in the West and is the secret behind the developed western society.

A society always needs books for its prosperity and effective existence. The Internet can never replace books permanently. Books contain more details about a particular topic and are unbiased and a credible source of information. Regardless of the technological developments, books will always remain a source of knowledge and information.

The people of a developing country like Pakistan can prosper by developing the healthy habit of reading books. I now consult books from the library as well. After all, one can’t get everything on the Internet.

HAMAYUN ZAKI HUNZAI Hunza-Nagar, Gilgit-Baltistan