Why Do We Love Books?

Books use descriptions and stories that are not from reality in order to draw the reader’s attention. Without the power of illusion and imagination books would be a pointless use of paper. Books have been used for thousands of years as a way to pass on knowledge, but they are also used to escape from the harsh reality of life. Fantasy books tell stories of knights, princesses and dragons from times long past. Horror novels bring the reader’s greatest fears to life and the romance novels create a story that any individual would wish to be a part of. Books create an illusion about what life could be like, which is why we love reading them so much.

People love to escape from their reality. An enlightened individual once said, “Books wash away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Individuals are never completely content with their lives so they are constantly looking for an escape. Books in today’s society are all about the escape. Fantasy books pull the reader into a world that is nothing like what they have experienced in reality. Authors create distant lands with strange characters in order to allow the reader to disappear into a story that is not their own.

The problem with people falling too in love with their illusions is that it can cause that individual to have problems telling the difference between illusion and reality. This can cause people to go crazy. Even the people who are sane can sometimes mix up illusion with reality. Sai Baba once said, “Do not be misled by what you see around you, or be influenced by what you see. You live in a world which is a playground of illusion, full of false paths, false values and false ideals. But you are not part of that world.” Our world is full of illusions, mistaken beliefs, and fake people. Being so full of fantasy it is easy to connect things that happened in books to what is happening in real life. Books also have to have some degree of truth to them or else the story is not believable. If the story is not believable people cannot enjoy the illusion.

People like to believe that they want to know the truth and be completely in touch with reality but the real truth is that reality is boring and dull. People love their illusions, their escapes, and the way illusion and reality collide.