Everyone needs to read. He who has no time or taste for such an activity has no time or taste for learning truth, widening knowledge, removing error, and avoiding suffering. For reading, like reflection and travel, will enable him to compare his own little heap of experience with the experiences of other people all over the world. He may, if he chooses, benefit by their recorded experience and learn where he has been wrong, where right. He who travels widely, intelligently, and observantly, that is to say, with an active mind and not like a baggage trunk, will at least build a broader perspective on life. Literature records the results of mental travel and to read right literature is to start your mind on journeys from which much may be gained. But it is better not to read at all than to read rubbish. For good reading will enrich life whereas bad reading will deteriorate it. This book, then, will try to make its readers think--which means that it will probably make some quite angry but many others a little wiser. It is not possible to write a recipe for a dish which shall satisfy all tastes and it is not possible to write a book which shall satisfy all readers. I accept beforehand therefore the fact that many people will dislike these pages. Even the mystical aspirants amongst mankind are a mixed, complex lot with contradictory outlooks and conflicting aims. There is no doctrine that will appeal to all.
-- Notebooks Category 12: Reflections > Chapter 4 : Reflections On Truth > # 120
