World Book Day is a special day which is celebrated on 23rd April. This day describes the importance of Books and why we should preserve books. Reading is a passion. We will look at why books are so important and give us information.
The evolution of Books
Humanity has developed from Hunter-gatherers to Modern day Businessmen. We know about their lives more or less in detail because of all the writings they have left us. These early languages were written in Manuscripts. These manuscripts were looped together to make tiny booklets. Since the manuscripts get broken very easily, people had another idea: Writing through inscriptions. Since inscriptions were like carving out words on rough surfaces, most of them survived. During that time, many countries rose. One of them was China. The Chinese were the first ones to discover paper. Since then, a large amount of Paper was in demand. Paper began to produce very easily, so it was cheaper than it is today. This when the quill and ink came in. Scribes used the quill and wrote their stories in the paper and grouped them together. That’s how the first paper books were made.
Audiobooks
Paper books are now considered as yesterday’s news. Humanity has been evolving in technology and has turned our solid paper books into read-aloud book. This is called Audiobook. An audiobook is an app for oral books. When you buy an Audiobook, you will not be able to read it, as a voiceover will read aloud the entire story to you. Audiobooks have several advantages. If you go out walking or cycling, you can listen to an audiobook. That way you can keep an eye on the road while listening to a book. Also, listening to books will help improve your pronunciation. This is why audiobooks are good.
Kindles
If a person must like to read lots of books, his house must be full of books. This litter his space. So, people have thought of a way to squeeze a ton of books into one tiny device. This device is called Kindle. Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. Kindle is not only s separate device, it is an app, that can be downloaded into Laptops, Phones, etc. E-books are online books, often in the form of a pdf. If we want to buy any book, we can go to kindle and buy it using money. Some books are even for free. If we buy one book, and already have many, then we need to return a book. This way, the space in your kindle would not get clogged up. There are 10 generations of Kindle. Kindle is the best way to read lots of books. Some Kindles even have a backlight to help read during the dark. And, even though it is an electronic device, it doesn’t harm our eyes much. Kindle has also been considered as the world’s best e-reader.
The importance of Books
The early books were full of stories of their time. But the books, as well as their types, have evolved and there are different groups of things we can write about. Books are important because they hold information inside. They are physical forms of witnesses to what happened in the olden days. Once, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru stated that books are like our History. This is because, like studying History in ancient times while taking in information, books provide us with an even more detailed image. Thus, we must preserve books because every book has a hidden meaning to something truly spectacular. It is like a puzzle. We just have to put it together, to know the secrets behind it.
The types of Books
There are various types of Books. Each type of book is based on that. There are more than 30 types of books. We will see some of them with an explanation.
- Fiction
Fictitious stories mainly revolve around plots that are not real. They are mainly created for the interest and amusement of the readers, mainly about Monsters, Aliens, superheroes, etc.
- Non-Fiction
Non – Fiction stories consist of real-life stories. They consist of Drama, essays and novels about some existing places and stories from the Author’s point of view.
- Biography
Biographies are stories that depict a person’s life. These types of books are written by some other person. Ex. Anne Frank
- AutoBiography
AutoBiography also depicts the story of a person’s life. But, unlike Biographies, an AutoBiography is written by the person himself. Ex. Wigs of Fire, written by Abdul Kalam.
Why reading is relaxing
Reading is one of the best ways to relax. Most kids do not like to read because after attending school every day, they feel that reading the textbook and memorising is not what they want to do. But reading storybooks is relaxing because you have no need to memorise them. All you need to do is sit back and let the words flow around your head. Once you start another paragraph, you can forget the previous one; you now understand the story. Reading fiction stories is a great relief. It can be anything silly or full of humour and will be a good stress-buster. We can just enjoy everything the book contains, without memorising it. A very attentive and eager reader of books can just feel the characters, feeling the situation they are in. Books are the most relaxing thing we could do, in time of stress, boredom, and interest.
World Book Day
Like we get from the name, World Book Day is a special event where we celebrate the evolution and the introduction of books into our life on the 23rd of April. It was organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1995. It is an annual event. This was organised to promote reading, publishing, and copyright of books. UNESCO decided to host this event on this day because ethos was the Death anniversary of William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. This day really encourages kids to read more books. During the lockdown, books are your best friend!
Bookworms
The term bookworms may be one we might have heard very often. It often describes a person who loves books and is obsessed with reading. Its literal meaning is an insect that bore through the pages of a book. This type of worm has been considered as a scholar and having an obsession for reading because, these worms mainly target books, which leads us to believe that they like books. In time, it has also been used for Humans. These Bookworms are also known as Book Lice, as they are believed to be soft-bodied, wingless creatures. But, evidence proves that they are not necessarily lice. By the 20th century, bookbinding materials had developed a high resistance against damage by various types of book-boring insects. Today the pages of books have been strengthened and are thicker, to keep out these Bookworms. In the meanwhile, when anyone says that he or she’s a bookworm, you that they are fond of reading!
Reading is a passion. My passion. And I am ready to share my favourite pastime with everyone in the World. Imagine what you may learn and achieve through reading! After reading a few books, I gained much more knowledge than I thought I would. I also learnt to speak fluently in English! Books contain knowledge, proper wordings, literature, and a variety of Phrases. Through these, you will know, which phrase describes which situation, and which punctuation marks appear where. It gives you a chance to clear your mind, gives you your ‘me time’ and a meditative state which allows you peace and quiet from the noise of your house. Reading is always the best since you don’t spend your time staring at screens. Today’s movies, after which books have been written. Do not provide nearly as much information as books. Books provide much more details than a movie. If you don’t understand a part, you always read it several times, while if that was the case with movies, you would have to keep on rewinding it. So, In my view of point, reading books is always the best, and I think that you agree too.
By Malyatha Sadagopan, Maharashtra
