“By the age of 70, he who doesn’t read will have lived only one life.
He who reads will have lived 5000 years.
Reading is immortality backwards.”
(Umberto Eco, Italian philosopher, novelist, and semiotician)
Umberto Eco basically just roasted non-readers in the most intellectual way possible.
He is saying, “If you don’t read, congrats—you are stuck with your one boring life. Meanwhile, readers are out here collecting lives like Pokémon cards, living through 5,000 years of drama, wars, love affairs, and bad decisions—all without leaving the couch.”
Eco, the author of ‘The Name of the Rose’, knew how to flex his bookishness, what he is really saying here is:
Reading is the cheat code for immortality, but instead of living forever, you live backwards—like Benjamin Button, but smarter. Non-readers? Well, enjoy being mortal. We will be busy time-traveling and hanging out with Shakespeare.