Richard reminds us how good it is to read a real book – a physical book that you can touch and feel. “There’s nothing more fun and enjoyable than immersing myself in a novel or a non-fiction book and learning something with a real printed book…” Visiting homes nowadays, you may not find any books that would reflect the person’s interests and personality. Often people just refer to their phones for reading … but with all the distractions online, there is not much time – if any – left for reading a good book. In comparison with an audio, reading a book is more thorough as your brain is taking in the words more actively and you don’t miss “half the book due to falling asleep while listening…” Richard also worries that we will end up with a society of illiterate people that cannot read more than five or ten minutes. He’s concerned that the next generation will miss out on the ability to reason, to think things through – and AI seems to dumb people down even more. Reading a book however, can help us understand others better, as we get to know someone else’s point of view.
If you look carefully, you will spot our latest novel, The Spire, lying on his coffee table!
(Video: Richard Vobes/YT)