How do we amuse ourselves

Have you noticed the difference between reading a book and reading the newspaper?

- IT CAME TO MIND | MANISH NANDY

When you read a book and turn to the first chapter, you have no notion what it contains, how long it is and how it is going to affect you. That is the beauty of a book: it surprises you, it amazes you, it brings you unexpected thrills, pains, and insights. Reading a newspaper is a very different experience. Any reporter will tell you how strictly limited in size is a news story, how he heading is plotted to attract you and how aggressively the titles are engineered to follow trends and magnetize the drifting and deviant reader. If you want your mind to dive deeper and your spirit to soar, your morning glance at the headlines is hardly the best choice. The neglected book on your shelves merits another look.

Any millennial who finds me talking about books and newspapers will probably conclude that I belong to a world which has morphed entirely and has scant bearing on what younger people now read. It has morphed because of three major changes that took place as the twentieth century ebbed.