“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”— Sir Richard Steele
The reading habit of our people is on a sharp decline, if not altogether dead. The electronic media, lack of public reading rooms in cities, high cost of books and periodicals and their non-availability are among the factors responsible for this sad state of affairs.
Education policies and the cold attitude of poorly-paid teachers are also to be blamed. It is now felt that when you can get everything on the Internet, why take pains to read a book or a journal for diversion and improvement of knowledge? In the recent past, it was the moral duty of a teacher to guide a student about what to read. But very few teachers care to do so now. Years ago, students read books on arts and literature, in addition to others, prescribed in their courses.
Before a student moved to college, he was supposed to have read literary works such as Hugo’s Les Miserables, Haggard’s She, Armstrong’s Grey Wolf, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Dickens’ Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Gorky’s Mother, Kipling’s Kim and many other such classics.
All this developed a taste for knowledge and to improve ones diction. Reading, till the recent past, was given so much importance that people read books during long travels, flights and at night, before going to bed, to induce sleep.
But the reading habit has now gone down, as the people have no quest for knowledge. They have no time to read in today’s busy lifestyle. Casually, some book-lovers are seen at old book shops, rummaging for interesting titles. But the percentage of such book-hunters is small and can be counted on the fingertips.
Books not only open minds to new vistas, but also have the power to change the lives of their readers. Ruskin’s Unto the Last influenced Mahatma Gandhi, as admitted by him. Carlyle was admired by the Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who presented a copy of Armstrong’s Grey Wolf to Fatima Jinnah. Dale Carnegie’s magnum opus, How to Win Friends and Influence People, has made millions of miserable souls happy in their lives and professions. Readership of the once-popular Urdu digest and literary periodicals has also suffered for want of readers. Many of them have ceased publication due to poor demand.
A small percentage of people now read only fashion or cookery magazines. The demand for comics that was once brisk has also fallen due to the advent of computers, video games, etc. Publishers and book sellers offer discounted sales once or twice a year just to clear their stocks. They claim that the slashed prices are to promote the habit of reading in students and adults.
One’s relation with a book is a never-ending one. Habitual readers, despite hectic schedules, always find time to read in hotel rooms, on picnics, holiday resorts, etc.
Books can be excellent presents. Owning a personal library, no matter how small, is an asset and a source of unending joy.
Reading books and newspapers regularly helps in widening the sphere of one’s mind. The government should assist all literacy campaigns in the country, as many educated, low-income readers find purchasing books and newspapers financially taxing.
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”— Sir Richard Steele 
