What is the importance of reading? Why should we spend our time reading, especially as busy college students? In reading, there are both many educational and personal benefits. Additionally, it is important to remember how valuable being able to read really is and experience fiction worlds, true stories, and what is going on in the world. Let's dive a bit deeper into what this all means through some key points.
1. Reading is a good escape and can be incredibly relaxing.
Life can be busy, overwhelming, and uncontrollable, especially if you have lots of classes, work, and sports. Managing it can be incredibly difficult and working through the stress that comes with it can often be much worse. One benefit of reading is that is it is an escape and break from that stress. Finding a good book can take you to new world, explore complex problems, and provide hours of entertainment. Reading is a choice. You can choose what you want to read and explore without fear of getting to a certain page number or writing a paper about thematic character actions. Additionally, reading may help you feel understood and understanding. As author John Green simply stated, "Great books help you understand, and they help you to feel understood".
There is a reason books are criticized, praised, or incredibly popular. Books are complex and provide a voice to ideas and concepts. From banned books to those that provide criticism on culture, reading opens the door to the world. We all come from different backgrounds and experiences; we each have our own story. Through reading, you have the opportunity to expand your bubble and even break the expectations you have of yourself and the world. Additionally, it brings you closer to others. Reading is special in that even if we know of a concept or idea, by exploring and reading we gain new knowledge and learn from a new perspective. We are able to grow into people who care more about ideas, humanity, and solutions.
In one of her articles about the importance of reading, Brain Pickings writer Maria Popova quotes author Neil Gaiman on his perspective of fiction's value. "'Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you’ve never been. Once you’ve visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. And discontent is a good thing: people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different, if they’re discontented,'" (Popova, Gaiman).
3. Reading opens the door to community.
Although books are often seen as a personal and introverted activity, they can also be used as a way to socialize and grow friendships with others. Take book clubs, recommending books to others, and popular culture references as examples. Books and stories bring people together while helping challenge us in our experience and being willing to share it with others.
Books are a form of media, and like all media, they are biased in some way. But, they also take more time to write and often more care before publishing. Books can provide information that is easily compared with other sources, insight, and perspective. In regards to non-fiction, reading a lot of books allows for the opportunity to learn more about issues that matter to you. Additionally, they may help you have the ability to understand and be less overwhelmed by issues in culture, then being able to formulate opinions and solutions. This then can be useful in classes, as you have more sources and understanding about why you believe something, as well as knowledge to share with other people.
5. Not reading all together undermines the value of books in society.
According to Pew Research,"About a quarter of American adults (24%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form," (Perrin 2016). This is definitely at least a whelming statement. Books are such a rich source of knowledge and can provide and bring so much into people's lives and experiences, as stated in the points above. When we do not read or use books, we may begin to believe that they are of less worth than they provide. This is not to enact fear of a Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 like society, but it is important to note that how we gain information matters. How we communicate and grow as people is where we get information and how we process it in our daily lives. We should not read out of fear of losing books but out of enjoyment and pursuit of learning. What we give attention to is what grows and flourishes.
Additional note: I want to share this NPR article about reading literacy in the US and how many people are learning to read for the first time as adults.
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References:
DesMarais, C. (2018, March 15). Why Reading Books Should Be Your Priority, According to Science. Retrieved October 29, 2018, from https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/why-reading-books-should-be-your-priority-according-to-science.html
Popova, M. (2016, September 06). Neil Gaiman on Why We Read and What Books Do for the Human Experience. Retrieved October 29, 2018, from https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/08/03/neil-gaiman-view-from-the-cheap-seats-reading/
Block, M., & Peñaloza, M. (2018, April 26). Casting Aside Shame And Stigma, Adults Tackle Struggles With Literacy. Retrieved October 30, 2018, from https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/04/26/602797769/casting-aside-shame-and-stigma-adults-tackle-struggles-with-literacy
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