Why do we read?

Franz Kafka says:
"If the book we read does not wake us up with a bluster on our skull, why do we read the book then, to make us happy as I wrote, my God, we would be happy even if we did not have books and the books that make us happy can be written when needed.
We need those books that come down on us like the thunderbolt that hurts us, the death of our loved ones more than we love ourselves, which makes us feel like we've been driven out of the woods, like suicide.
The book should be like the ax that breaks the frozen sea in us, that's what I think "

That's what I think too.

The novel must be written in order to motivate us to think, to try to answer the important questions, those questions that have faded amidst the crowding of our days and the vanities of our lives.

The novel should not answer the questions. Questions that can be answered do not need to be written, but the novel must raise the other kind of question, the kind that every human being must answer for himself and by himself.

We can not get answers without raising our minds by asking questions, time after time, reading a novel after a novel, and we must not stop thinking and trying to answer.

Man tends to ignore the difficult questions and bury them in the darkness of his mind, especially those questions that are not typical answer, and only the stories that are like the ax that breaks the frozen sea inside us, is able to remind us, to illuminate this dark part and to push those questions to light.

The result is not guaranteed. You can spend your life trying to answer one question without success. But that does not matter. It is only trying to give our lives meaning.

"Ahmed Ibrahim Mosleh"