[juvoni]

The primary form of escape reading provided for me was an escape from poverty. Books were my ladder, and my hope. Having few mentors to tell me of a 'world' outside of the one I was living, books were able to transport me to foreign lands, they helped me understand myself, others around me and the world a little better.

Through good books, I could have access to mentors who would would never know me, but I knew them through their writing, and I acquired the tools to add value to the world.

Yes there are many mass marketed B.S books, that's why I tend to read older books that are battle tested and still relevant today(Lindy effect).

Yes, some books have more impact or less depending on what period in our lives we read them, our personal motivations or what prior knowledge and the context that makes the book relevant to us.

Of the hundreds of millions of books in the world, we may only get to read maybe a thousand or so if we try. Someone could invest years of their life into something that takes 8 hours or so to read. I think there's a high chance that their experience reveals to us something which we wouldn't have imagined and amazes us about the world we share.