Ive finally gotten down to reading 'The world is what it is' (Patrick French's biography of V.S.Naipaul) - im in fact just about into the first 50 odd pages. Its real nicely done, i have to admit - and its one of those books i know, i am sure, that i'l enjoy.

I have a thing for biographies - always had. If i ever sit down and make a list of books i've enjoyed the most over the years - the list (however tedious it is) will surely contain more than a few biographies. I mustav done, i dunno, hundreds of them i think.

Was chatting with a friend a little while ago - and it seems that him & nearly everyone he seems to know - haven't read a book in a really long time - he in fact does not remember the last time he read a book - ANY book

(Remember - the guy is a normal, nice, fun guy. He is pretty educated, holds down a nice job and all..)

In fact several other people - people i talk to - at work, from places like IITs, IIMs, doing post-docs, double PhDs, managed seriously complex businesses and so on - actually NEVER read.

Funny part is - they don't seem too affected by this -  potentially hugely crippling - deficiency (at least as what id expect it to be like).

While the friend agreed that he does not gather enough 'funda' (his word, not mine) - he claims that most book-reading related 'funda gathering' - is not really relevant in terms of holding down a good job, having an active social life, being liked by people in general.

The guy here is sort of implying that - he thinks that no tangible, monetizable, directly-qualifiable - 'skillsets' are developed when one has a reading habit.

Stupid, wrong and ludicrously narrow-minded, of course.

For example, one can read and write better if one has a reading habit.

But WTF, funny way of looking at the whole thing, no ?