In a time that manufacturers are trying to lull us into home cinemas, it may sound old-fashioned... but reading books is much more fulfilling than watching films!

• Reading a book is more active -- not physically, but mentally. This means it causes more pleasure.
• Once taken up by a book from a suitable author, you are much more involved in a book than a film could ever make happen. The hunt for realism in film showings is a (lost) battle against this magic spell that only a book can cast upon you!
• A novel gives you more insight in persons than a film could -- because a film only shows people on the outside, while an author can take you on a trip through a character's wires. No matter how dynamic a film is, it still shows only images that are incapable of expressing someone's rich (or imaginative, or sick, or ...) personality. Hardly anything is as rewarding as investigating someone else's mental life.
• Because books hold a lot more information than films, it gives more interesting topics of discussion, more to learn from and more to love. There are even reading clubs that discuss books, giving their members a chance to gain from other people's insights.
• Educative books are often structured to support flipping throught them, and reading those parts that are new to you, or sufficiently interesting. Such dynamism is impossible in a documentary, which is always targeted at a common denominator of the viewing audience.
• You can read books whenever and wherever you want... and they help you choose your own path, instead of being dependent on offerings that are tailored to a sort of mediocracy of viewers.
• Reading is an important competence in the Western world. Your writing, which is an even more important competence, will also improve if you read a lot.
• Books are more energy-efficient than films.