In the age of information, e-books, over 700 million websites to navigate through at the click of a button, Youtube, and Twitter have become a key source of knowledge sharing. In under 10 minutes, people are finding out how to edit videos, how to ace French, revising for a year’s worth of classes compressed into one crash course video, and gaining knowledge about our faith from 15-minute Qu’ranic reviews and reminders. We have seen the art of reading books become a secondary priority in the midst of our busy lives, which has taken an interesting turn, the role of actual tangible books has returned to being received by people as an activity of leisure, as a result of everything being far more accessible at the touch of a button. Kind of like how people love vinyl records, even though we have iPhones to listen to virtually any track we wish to in the world.

Its like we are attracted to the whole hard to get aspect of having to order or go out and buy a book. There is something mad alluring about book shops right? So much possiblity. We cannot avoid the allure of the smell of new paper and that delicious sound the book makes when you first open it wide enough to hear the spine crack a little. Sitting down and absorbing the words, at your own pace, no screen, or artificial colouring just the black and white squiggles splashed on the page from a mind that will transport you to the golden grain sands of Egypt, lift you off the ground in a hot air balloon to the middle of Cappadocia, you can find yourself swimming with sharks in the Pacific before being swallowed whole by a whale. You can meet the princes of India, and have dinner with a Russian spy,  you can ride a dragon, and roll up in a snow globe covered in stars. The art of reading a book is the slower version of watching the kind of film that has you transfixed when you’re in the cinema, you are taken on a journey and its characters become your friends, you spend time with them, you understand them, see how their story unravels, it can bring you comfort and remedy loneliness, make you laugh, and allow you to imagine.

So its the holidays, what better way to honour your mind than to reach out and read that book thats gathering dust on your shelf. better yet:

Here are a few recommended reads this Easter break:

For Anxiety

Status Anxiety – Alain de Botton

For love

The Course of True Love -Alaine de Botton

For Creativity

Creative Confidence- Tom Kelley & David Kelley

For Organisation

The Organized mind: thinking straight in the age of information overload

For Adventure

Into the Heart of Borneo

For Politics

Prisoners of Geography- Tim Marshall

For Identity

Letters to a Young Muslim

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