23rd April is the death day of William Shakespeare and is considered to be his Birthday also as exactly the birthday was not recorded… But he was born in April… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
https://guides.nyu.edu/shakespeare-bday
The same day coincides with the birth &
death days of other prominent authors also… Thus, it is decided by the UNESCO
to celebrate World Book & Copyright Day on April 23rd every
year.
From Palm leaf & ink to the paper & pen,
printing, e-books, it has taken several shapes as a medium of providing the
intellectual content over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book
Normally, we are in an apprehension that the books
are meant to be read or studied… Just read few lines about ‘reading’…. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading.
But normally, we forget the important aspect of writing… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing
Ideally, both reading & writing should go
hand in hand… As the reading improves our knowledge, writing improves our cognitive
skills and enhances our creativity & innovative ideas… Writing a notes,
journal/diary, an article, a book, poetry, prose or anything useful is the best
habit to inculcate… It is a must for the researchers… It always forces you to
continually improve your thought process. If we practice to be a critical
reader, we can become a good writer… While reading, understand the concepts
from the writer’s point of view… Just put yourself in the author’s shoes to identify
the skills of writing…
In my view, reading is nothing but the process
in which the writer in us critically follows the writer of the book to ignite
new thoughts in our minds… the
whole process adds value to us… As a writer, we should also follow the same… we
should add value to the readers… In this reading & writing process, we
should not make use of the others' ideas or texts… Using others’ ideas & texts
without giving due credit to the author is called plagiarism… As the reading
& writing are very important aspects of research, all the researchers
should be careful to avoid plagiarism… To protect the text & ideas,
copyrights act is enacted… Plagiarism is a punishable offence… If we learn the art of critically reading the
manuscripts & books, we will automatically get new ideas to contribute to
the world… This is how we should nurture the creativity & innovation…
I have to bring one more perspective of looking
at reading a book or manuscript, the moment we are reading a book, we will get
confined to the thought process of that author if we are blindly following it… That’s
why we should have an open & critical mind while reading so that we will
have a sufficient scope for the new thoughts to bud… We should identify the
thin line between getting into the author’s shoes & getting carried away by
the author’s thought process… That line brings the scope for new thoughts… Let us
explore those budding thoughts and make them blossom into a book or manuscript or
a blog or a diary at least…
Most of the people still prefer to read the books
in the physical form only… I want to discuss here about the advantages of
e-books, audiobooks, though they have also got some pros & cons…
Advantages of e-books
Ø Readers can customize the settings
of the font, colour, background etc., to their comfort levels…
Ø Very easy to share digitally
Ø Can take a print anytime
Ø Can save huge volumes in a smart
device & carry & read anytime
Ø No external lighting is required
Ø Preservation is not a problem
Ø Searching is very easy
Ø Can highlight & take a note simultaneously
Ø It is easy to use the dictionary or
translator or any other useful digital application on the digital content…
Ø It can be changed to other digital
formats also as per convenience
Ø The list goes on….
Ø The audiobooks are very useful for
those who have the problems in reading… They can get the knowledge by listening
to the audiobooks.
Coming to English, English is the only language
in the world in which most of the intellectual information is shared in terms
of books, manuscripts, research papers, journals etc., Thus, we need to master
this language a lot… Most of the Asian researchers face the problems in
publishing due to the problems with their English language skills… Let us take the
English Day (today) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_English_Language_Day
)as the opportunity to focus on our reading & writing skills of English
& continually improve on it…
Let us make a habit of reading & writing books
in English… All the Best…
I just recall the quote from William Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage and all men and women are merely players”, which I had used in my blog post Be an 'Actor' of 'Emotions'.
