IT is Harry S Truman who said: “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”

I discovered the gift of reading in my 30s and I can’t imagine life without books.

Evidence points to the fact that there is a global decline in reading, particularly among the young people. Apparently, the young believe reading is only necessary for passing examinations and that books are for old people.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The confident ignorance on social media arguments points to the need for all sorts of serious reading, particularly by the young generation. WhatsApp forwards are no substitutes for reading news in this fake news age. And audio books are not books at all.

Reading is fundamentally important for informed voters and the health of democracy.

Writing in The Week, author and politician, Shashi Tharoor @shashiTharoor endorses Margaret Atwood’s warning that: “If there are no young readers and writers there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead and democracy will be dead as well.”

In this age of instant gratification, likes, X posts, reposts and information overload, we are perhaps the most ignorant generation since creation began.

Our gated social media ghettos fool us into believing we are informed.

I am dyslexic and so reading and writing require some effort. I read for many reasons including continuously improving myself, growing my vocabulary and sharpening my writing skills.

In 1989 when I was employed as the Financial Gazette assistant editor, one of my lecturers was convinced I would fail because I could not “write a paragraph to save” my life. I am sure he would be proud of what reading and forcing myself to write has done over the past 30 years.

Reading has changed me. It has challenged and grown me. Reading has expanded my world and opened vistas I never knew existed.