I feel very bad having to defend what I do all the time in this utilitarian country. Nobody ever questions the value of, say, doctors, lawyers and engineers but everyone asks - Why read? 

Here is my answer:

Literature changes things. When Qin Shi Wang, the first Emperor to unite China, ascended his throne, one of the first things he did was to burn books and kill scholars. When the Japanese invaded Southeast Asia during War World II, they murdered scholars, teachers and academics. Even when Lee Kuan Yew first founded Singapore, he said there wasn't time for poetry. These rulers know that literature changes things, can topple a Kingdom, a country. A revolution is headed by freedom fighters but also by ideas - and who has ideas? Readers. Readers are not passive. Everyone can hold a gun, but not everyone can lead a revolution. The value of a doctor lies in her ability to save lives, but at what quality of life? It's better to live in knowledge than in ignorance and fear.