Why do humans read? This is not merely a question about habit; it is an ontological inquiry into our relationship with ourselves. Reading allows humans to make sense of the world. Yet today, the need to understand has been replaced by the desire to consume. As access to information grows, its value diminishes; speed replaces depth and superficiality overshadows truth.
Reading is primarily an existential experience, not just a means of acquiring information. Through reading, humans engage with themselves as much as with a text. To neglect reading is not simply inactivity; it is the weakening of oneβs connection to self.
Ray Bradburyβs "Fahrenheit 451" captures this crisis:
βIt is not the destruction of books that is alarming; it is the disappearance of the human need for meaning.β
Books may no longer be openly burned, but the capacity to think critically, reflect and achieve inner depth is under systematic erosion. The true danger is no longer the ban on books but the suppression of thinking itself. A thinking human questions; a questioning human refuses to acquiesce, and a human who refuses cannot be contr
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