In this era of digital technology, mobiles, tabs, and laptops are gaining more and more significance by the day. People now use their handsets for watching videos, playing games, being active on social media, reading news and for many other purposes. But amidst this technological revolution and digitization, everybody has now forgotten the most important source of how this technology came into existence and from where all this knowledge has evolved. Those important sources of information and knowledge are ‘Books’.
Importance of Reading Books
Books have been one of the primary sources of documentation and in providing all kinds of information for millions of years. It is because of books that people today have access to knowledge of different fields of study like science, technology, history, politics, geography, religions, literature, etc.
Documentation of information has existed since ancient times. These different carefully preserved documents (or manuscripts) resulted in the need to organize all such information properly in the form of books. This shows how books have been prominent in shaping the progress of mankind. But sadly, today’s generation has overlooked the importance of books and has now become more allured to all things which are digital.
Children are nowadays hooked to their Android phones by way of playing different games, watching videos and movies and ‘socialising’ on social media and also watching TV. In short, we can say that children are using technology for unproductive purposes. This makes them unimaginative, dull, non-interactive, lazy and results in their delaying other important activities.
Parents should thereby take some steps to reduce this time-wasting hobby of children spending time on their phones and TV, by encouraging them to start reading books. Book-reading habits must be developed by parents, who can first give their children very basic and easy-to-read books. There are many benefits of reading books which every parent must be made aware of.
Benefits of Reading:
- Learn something new – When children read books, they learn many different things like good values, good behaviour, and discipline. They also learn about new cultures, languages, traditions, countries, and many more things which they wouldn’t have been aware of.
- Improves vocabulary – Reading books improve the vocabulary of children. When we read books, we might come across new words and phrases and these newfound words can prove to be very useful in improving our speaking as well as reading skills.
- Increases reading speed– Children’s reading speed increases as and when they read more and more books. Their ability to understand English as well as other languages also improves, when they develop a book reading habit.
- Increases memory power – When children read books, they tend to retain what has been written in it and this strong retention of information also comes into force when they have to study for any subject for their exams, which helps them in scoring good marks.
- Develops creativity, curiosity, and imagination – Book reading helps children to be more creative and enables them to think out-of-the-box. There are certain books in which the authors encourage children to broaden their minds and thereby stimulate their creative thinking process. Children can also become more imaginative by visualizing the contents of the book in their minds, which helps them sharpen their cognitive skills. This enables the children to develop a curiosity about various concepts which they might come across while reading books.
How has the technology blended with the books in the form of E-books?
Technology can also be collaborated with books, in the form of ‘E-Books’. ‘E-books’ are the books which are in an electronic (soft copy) format and can be read using a mobile, tablet or laptop. This is also an effective way to encourage children to read books since they are more attracted to all things ‘digital’.
How library management software boosts the habit of reading books among students?
Schools can also play a role in spreading book reading habit among children by introducing ‘Library management software’ in the library of the respective school. Library management software provides the list of different books according to their categories which could be borrowed from the library. Children can log in to the software using their credentials and find the books which entice them the most from the vast category of the book list, which is easily provided by the software at a single click.
The importance of books should never be undermined since they have been a storehouse of information of all kinds for years together. Books help the children in gearing up for the future challenges by way of inculcating reasoning skills in their minds like problem-solving, decision making, learning, adaptability, generating curiosity and creative visualization. So it is very important to make the younger generation future ready by encouraging them to gather knowledge from Books and E-books as well.
