The value of a book is something that isn’t immediately apparent to people that are not fond of books already. First let’s look at the two main types. There is fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is untrue information. So fiction books tend to be various genres of stories. They can be supernatural, realistic and set in some old setting or current setting but with modifications to what currently exists. It can be whatever your mind conjures up that can be read coherently. Non-fiction is true information. So this could be text books, stories that really happened, self-help, guides, etc. It is the difference between what is imagined or is real.
A book can capture thousands of years worth of lessons, history, and various types of information. Sun Zu’s Art of War book is a compilation of many authors over a thousand years in time. Then the person who put it together had worked for a long time on it on their own editing all the various pieces of information together and working with many very educated folks to get the information for it. All that packed into something I can hold in my hands in paper form. Some hundred pages contain the massive amounts of nuggets of wisdom to work with. Adding all that information to your mind so that you can utilize that new information and strategies to upgrade your performance and ability to navigate life.
You could maybe find all that information if you searched far and wide and pieced it together yourself but it is would take extraordinary amounts of time. Assume all that time that the writer took to write the book after taking all the time to gather the information on their own and from various people. Now assume all the background the writer had in order to know how to get all that information together and write the book. That is basically what you yourself would require to do to find all that information on your own and put it together in a coherent format for you to utilize. Otherwise it is just random shards of information that you pick up and maybe keep and more likely discard.
You learn many things from reading books. You learn how to talk better because you are picking up new words, terms, sentence fragments, general statements, timing, language patterns, and much more. This all that allows you to understand other people better as well as how to have other people understand you better. People read things because they get value from it. If it is fiction and is popular then it must also be what is most enjoyable to read as a subject or in how the person writes. If you have a great subject but are awful at writing, most people will not want to read what you have to say. That happens with how people talk as well. If they are monotone, slow, too loud, too quiet, too high pitch, etc. Some people are glorious to listen to even if they are talking about mundane things. So you are learning language that is very enjoyable for people to hear.
Books allow you to be entertained greatly as well. Some writers are amazing enough to write an enjoyable story but educate you about new ideas at the same time. Such books as Starship Troopers. Many people cite that book when talking about governmental systems relating to things like voting rights and military service. You can view things that will give you the full range of emotions and sensations. Things that will make you happy, sad, angry, depressed, and terrified. You can escape into space, travel back in time, watch a master thief pull a big heist, travel forward in time, or go 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Books are amazing encapsulations of information of the educational or entertainment types. So much power in such a small amount of space. While it may take some time to get into reading, it is definitely worth it.