Everyone needs to make reading part of their lives

Reading is a fundamental part of opening the mind and being open to new ideas, as well as absorbing some of the most beautiful human creations in poetry and prose. Reading allows any individual to touch the mind of some of the human race’s greatest artists and scientists through direct access to their thoughts. In a digital age, it has become depressingly easy to limit reading to quick reads and summarised versions and thereby miss out on some of the greatest offerings that are contained in full-length books or papers.

This is why it is so exciting that the UAE’s new Reading Law is helping to make reading an integral part of everyone’s daily life. The new law requires government bodies to give employees time to read material that concerns their line of work, as well as to support reading initiatives. The law also encourages private-sector companies to invest in the establishment of libraries and cultural centres and it encourages shopping centres to offer commercial spaces at competitive prices for setting up public libraries.

Reading is an essential part of building a civilised society that is capable of change and able to be a world leader. It is important that senior government officials agree that reading should be both an integral part of any individual’s lifestyle and they are well aware that the sum of all this will be a substantial increase in the UAE’s intellectual production and cultural wealth. The government is doing its part by encouraging reading, but ultimately it is up to the people to adopt a reading culture. And when they do that, they will not look back.