Why I read books.

It's becoming increasingly difficult to sort out fact from fiction in the modern world. The phrase "I/You read it on the internet" is used both to substantiate claims and prove them false, but it does neither convincingly. The mainstream media cannot be concered primarily with facts, because it is a big business like any other and profits must come first. The talk of media bias may be quite accurate, but I think the older and more disturbing trend of pure sensationalism is more damaging and more difficult to combat. For instance, the "cop killer" bullet story of 1982 that bore ZERO relation to any relative facts resulted in a flurry of useless, self-serving litigation from congress over an issue that does not exist. Or the NBC/General Motors scandal where NBC rigged GM's light trucks with explosives to "conclusively prove" that they blew up when struck from the side in a typical car accident. They certainly do blow up when struck from the side in a typical car accident while loaded with explosives and detonated at the right frame of film.
Hollywood is responsible for so many misconceptions it's not worth pointing them out. Which is why truly great movies tend to be the work of a single, perfectionist visionary, instead of a viewer-approved focus group.
Contrast all that with a good book. By good I mean rare and antiquated, since there are so few quality reads being produced at this point.
A good book must stand up to generations of analysis and culture changes. If the loyal denizens of Middle-Earth could have discovered some error or inconsistency, they would surely have done so by now.
A good book is an interactive experience, running smoothly (I hope) on the framework of your well-trained mind. The more active your imagination and thought-life is, the more enjoyable a good book becomes.
A good book can change your life. Reading "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek (my apologies for the quotes instead of underlining, I don't know how to do that with this software) affected my entire outlook on life.
I wish more people read good books.