Thread: What are the drawbacks of reading a lot of books?

There have been a lot of comments on the benefits of reading a lot of books. This is a question about the opposite side.

My husband was the only child banned from the reading corner at school. When I met him I could not understand that story: it seemed ridiculous and unfair. Who would ban a child for reading in a world where so few children read at all?

But having known him and been married to him for a while I actually can understand how this can have its drawbacks: he can escape into books for hours, days. Sometimes he will not notice what I say to him and will recede from the outside world so completely that life threatens to pass him by.

This is not to say anything against my husband who is the most wonderful, honest and caring person that I am blessed to spend my life with and whose passion for reading has made him wise and intelligent; it is simply to say that even with reading one needs to make a choice and a compromise.

I too am a lover of books and of the escape that reading and day-dreaming offer; and I too have to force myself to come back into the world every now and then in order not to lose the precious moments in my own life.


Source: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-d...a-lot-of-books

This reminds me of an essay I read at school by Francis Bacon (1561-1626) called 'Of Studies'.
This line in the essay has stuck in my memory " Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."

'Conference' being an Elizabethan term for a person who goes out and engages with the world in the form of work or socialising.
Otherwise there is the risk of being a bookworm and not being able to carry out practical activities which can be quite a disadvantage. I suppose what Bacon recognised was that it is best to try to be a "rounded person" including taking part in sport especially at school. This is one of the reasons successful parents are so choosy about the type of school to which they send their children.