Books are a cheat code for living multiple lives in one lifetime

I read a lot of books. I finished 72 books in 2023 and 78 in 2024, and that's just the ones I actually finished; I read probably three times that many to various stages of completion without finishing. I also buy a lot of books. They're really the only thing I buy outside of the necessities. Which is all a long way of saying: Why do I do that? lol.

I think about that a lot, and one of the answers is that books are a real cheat code for living multiple lives in one lifetime. They let you experience and learn from other people's successes and mistakes in an abbreviated/accelerated form so you don't have to do it yourself.

Looked at this way, I can't believe everyone isn't constantly reading. You can literally read the thoughts other humans have had across literal millennia. It's like time travel, or getting advice from dead people lol.

I'm also a writer, so there's probably a kind of camaraderie aspect to it as well. Some of my favorite reading includes things like Charles Bukowski's letters, especially from his later years, which read like philosophy and should be required reading for anyone dedicated to the craft of writing (as opposed to the love of having written).

Anyway, just a thought I thought maybe other book people might be interested in.