Reading Part 2

It's both fortunate and unfortunate to be old enough to have lived during the analogue age. I refuse to be the rambling old sentimentalist who glorifies the old days and condemns the present time. That is not part of my personality for starters and the good ol' days were the same days we have now. The old days, the analogue days were just different. I doubt people have changed, and I doubt they ever will. Perhaps the way we interact and how we see the world has changed. Who knows?

What I do know is this: everyone you see is holding a phone. I mean everyone. Not just young people who did not live during the analogue days. I mean everyone. It's a rare sight anymore to see someone holding a book, and anymore, it's rare to see someone holding a conversation. There is no judgment here, there can't be. But think about this: not less than a generation ago, seeing someone in the park or on the bus with a book was a very common thing. I know, I know, you can read books on your phone, you can have conversations on your phone, but how many people are really doing that?

I believe the hand held device has replaced a few things. I think it has replaced the book. I think, and for the better, it has replaced cigarettes. I think it has replaced maps, adventure, wrong turns and happy accidents. What I'm afraid it has replaced are the hours we used to have for such things like reading a book.

I know if a person wants to search out a book and read it, they will. I know there are still readers out there among us. I am fortunate enough to live in a town with a wonderful library, two independent bookshops and dozens of those little free libraries people erect front of their houses along sidewalks. There are books everywhere for us to read, and for that, I cannot imagine a better town in which to live.

However, the worrisome part of this thought is the hand held device complete with all social media outlets and news sources has become more common than the book. There are several people in my circle who can tell me all sorts of things related to social media but who cannot tell me the last book they read. The impact of this is not an easy thing to conceive and we may not know the true impact for a number of years to come.

What we do know is this: people who read typically have better vocabularies. People who read will be more articulate in their speech. We're also learning that the constant contact to social media is proving detrimental to mental and emotional health. This is an interesting thing to contemplate, that the reading of a book is healthy and the social media world we've created can be unhealthy.

What's more, there are numerous studies about the impact of reading. A few impressions for me are the amount of focus and the amount of compassion a person has that goes along with reading. A recent study took a very large group of young working professionals. Within the group, half were told to read a book, any book for thirty minutes before they went to work everyday. The other group was told not to read. What they found was that the first group, the readers, were more focused at work. Being more focused at work, improving the flow, is beneficial to everyone, worker, customer and employer.

Another interesting study simply suggested that people who read fiction tend to have a higher rate of compassion or empathy for others. This makes complete sense to me. Should you endeavor to read a book about a certain group of people in a certain place, you'll not only learn something about those people and their place, but you'll understand them a little more. And furthermore, reading about a character you will inevitably feel what they feel and understand how they think. Of course the reading of fiction would help us all to have more compassion, how could it not?

And one of the more compelling studies was one that took place over a period of many years and dealt with people over the age of 50. As I near this age group, this study becomes a little more pertinent. The act of reading, and reading daily keeps the brain fit. As we age, there are certain things that we accept as part of getting older. Wrinkles, gray hair, loss of muscle mass, these things are tolerable. Dementia and Alzheimer's are two words that strike fear into most of us. Being a reader cannot guarantee the prevention of such mental conditions, but studies show it can slow the onset. Even if there was a small chance that reading could stave off dementia, why wouldn't you read?

Reading anything is good. Are there better things to read than others? I would think that a book of nonfiction warrants time and effort. You can almost always learn something from a nonfiction book. And should you read three or more books on any given subject, you'll probably be an expert. When it comes to fiction, I have always believed that it is time well spent. Whereas nonfiction may be fact, fiction is truth. In fiction we find humanity, we find conflict, we find ourselves.