Dear students,

Today, you are beginning one of the most important journeys of your lives. For some of you, university is the first step toward the profession you have dreamed of; for others, it is a period of discovery, during which you will better understand what you want to do with your lives.

But university should be much more than a path toward a degree. It should help you develop a way of thinking and, above all, the ability to think independently.

That is precisely why I want to speak to you today about something that, in a world changing so rapidly, may seem ordinary, even somewhat old-fashioned: books and reading.

Perhaps some of you may ask: why talk about books today, when we have the internet, Google, YouTube, podcasts, digital libraries and artificial intelligence? Why spend time reading hundreds of pages when we can get an answer within a few seconds?

Exactly for that reason.

Because the problem of our time is no longer a lack of information. On the contrary, we live in an age in which information is almost endless. It comes at us from every direction and, often, without us even asking for it. Our phones bring us news, photographs, videos, comments, opinions and analysis. One click leads to another, and one piece of information to the next.

But having a great deal of information does not necessarily mean having a great deal of knowledge. And having knowledge does not necessarily mean knowing how to think.

This is one of the greatest challenges facing your generation.

You have grown up in a world where information has become fast, short and increasingly tailored to what algorithms think will capture your attention. If you watch one video, another will be offered to you. If you read one news story, similar stories will appear. If you express an opinion, the algorithm may bring you more content that reinforces it.

This is convenient, but it can also be dangerous.

Because it can create the illusion that we are seeing the whole world, when in reality we may be seeing only the part of the world that someone, or something, has chosen for us.

That is why the book remains important.

A book does not appear before you because an algorithm has calculated how many seconds you are likely to watch it. You choose it. You decide to enter its world and stay there. And that choice is an important form of personal freedom.

We live in an age of speed. A headline, a photograph, a short video, a comment, a reaction, and then something else. Our attention is constantly being demanded.

But deep thought does not happen quickly.

A serious idea takes time. An argument needs to be followed to the end. A difficult question does not always have an immediate answer. A mature thought requires us to remain with a problem even when we do not have a solution right away.

This is one of the most important things university can teach you: not to be afraid of the slowness of thought.

Thinking deeply is not a waste of time. On the contrary, it is the best way not to waste our time following every idea that is offered to us.

A good book does not simply give you information. It makes you stay. It asks you to follow an argument. To understand a character. To accept an idea with which you disagree. To change your mind, or perhaps to strengthen your position after understanding better why you disagree.

When you truly read, you begin to ask questions: Why does the author say this? How does the author know? What is the evidence? Is the argument sound? What is missing? Is there another point of view?

These questions are the foundation of critical thinking.

And critical thinking is one of the most important abilities you can develop during your university years.

So do not read only for exams.

Of course, you need to know the literature of your field, the concepts, theories and authors connected to your profession. But if you read only to pass an exam, then university will end on the day you receive your degree.

If you read to understand, university can continue throughout your life.

I would encourage you to build two libraries. One professional library, connected to the field you have chosen, and one personal library, connected to who you are as human beings.

Read history, even if you study economics. Read literature, even if you study engineering. Read philosophy, even if you study law. Read biographies, science, art, politics, psychology and travel. Read authors with whom you agree, but also those with whom you disagree.

Because university should not teach you only how to defend an opinion. It should also teach you how to question it.

There is another reason to read that we often underestimate: language.

Thought and language are deeply connected. The more words, concepts and forms of expression you know, the better you can recognize the nuances of an idea and the more precisely you can express what you think.

A rich vocabulary gives us the ability to be more precise, clearer and more persuasive. You will need this in an exam, an essay, a job interview, a debate, a professional report, a conversation and, above all, in your public and professional lives.

A person who knows how to think but cannot express that thought has a problem. But a person who speaks beautifully without deep thought has another problem. Reading helps bring the two together: thought and language.

But the book does something else, perhaps more important than all of these things.

It gives us the opportunity to live, for a while, a life that is not our own.

Through a book, we can enter another era, another country, another culture and, above all, the mind of another human being. We can see the world through the eyes of someone who has never lived our life.

We can meet an immigrant, a soldier, a scientist, a politician, a mother, a child, a prisoner, someone who has lost everything or someone who has gained everything.

This is one of the greatest powers of literature: it takes us, temporarily, outside ourselves.

And when we return to ourselves, we may be a little different. A little more understanding of others. A little less certain that we are always right. A little more willing to listen.

This is empathy.

And a society that needs good professionals needs just as much people who know how to understand one another.

But I also want to speak to you about another reason why reading matters today. You will not face information alone. You will increasingly face disinformation, propaganda, manipulation, fake news and content created specifically to persuade you.

New technologies, including artificial intelligence, will make this challenge even more complex. Even a narrative controlled by those in power may appear to you as a mirror of truth, feeding distrust and indifference and influencing the way you think.

Therefore, an educated citizen is not simply someone who knows many facts. It is someone who knows how to ask questions.

Who says this? Why do they say it? What is the source? What is the evidence? Is there another point of view? What is being left out?

Deep reading, especially reading different authors and different texts, exercises precisely this ability.

In this sense, the book is also an instrument of freedom.

I do not, however, want you to see reading as another obligation. Do not turn the book into another university assignment. Do not think that the value of reading is measured only by the number of pages you have read.

Start small.

Ten minutes a day. Fifteen minutes. Twenty minutes.

It is enough to build a regular relationship with reading.

Carry a book with you. Read in a café, in the library, at the weekend or before going to sleep. Try, from time to time, to replace an hour on social media with a chapter of a book.

And above all, find your books.

Not only the books you are told are important, but also the books that make you forget the passage of time.

Because a love of books does not begin by obligation.

It begins by curiosity.

And do not think that technology is the enemy of books. Use it. Use digital libraries. Read on a tablet or phone. Listen to audiobooks. Search for scientific articles. Use artificial intelligence as an assisting tool.

But do not hand over your mind to it.

Use technology to expand your world, not to narrow it.

Do not let an algorithm show you only what you like. Seek out what challenges you as well. Do not read only people with whom you agree. Read those who disagree with you.

Because the mind grows not only when it is confirmed, but especially when it is challenged.

During the years you spend at university, you will learn many things. Some you will remember for a long time; others you will forget. Some formulas and facts will fade over the years. Even some of the lectures you hear may gradually disappear from your memory.

But I hope that university will give you something that is not easily forgotten: the habit of thinking for yourself.

And for that, you need reading.

Not only academic books. Not only the books required by your curriculum. But also the book that opens a window for you. The book that unsettles you. The book that changes an idea. The book that makes you ask questions. The book that teaches you something about the world. And, perhaps above all, the book that teaches you something about yourself.

Dear students,

You are entering university at an extraordinary time. You have access to more information than any generation before you. You have tools that earlier generations could hardly have imagined.

But precisely for this reason, you must protect something that cannot be delegated to any technology: the ability to think for yourself.

Read and think slowly.

Think with curiosity.

Read what does not convince you, and also what makes you uncomfortable.

Read to know, but above all, read to understand.

And do not let the algorithm build your library, or your thoughts, for you.

Build them yourselves.

Because at the end of university, it will not be only your degree that determines your future. It will also be the mind you have built along the way.

And that mind is built, among other things, page by page.