Joy of Reading — A.P.J Abdul Kalam

Think of the one book you have kept since school — the one that is falling apart because you keep going back to it. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the missile scientist who became India's eleventh President, had a book like that, and he wrote about it. His essay on the joy of reading asks a simple question that matters more than it sounds: what does a book actually do to the person who reads it? You are about to spend five years reading judgments and statutes; this essay is set so that you first think about why reading is worth it at all.

In two minutes

In 'The Joy of Reading', Kalam argues that books are lifelong friends that build character — balance, ethics and self-understanding — and he proves it through the three books that shaped his own life: Light from Many Lamps, the Thirukkural and Alexis Carrel's Man the Unknown.

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