Reading Part 4

Is there any reason to read outside of the obvious benefits: better vocabulary, better focus, more empathy and compassion, avoiding dementia, and as education to be a writer? I don't think so. I don't think there is anything new I can state on the subject of reading.

I feel like the all benefits aside, there is the notion that once a person begins to read they will never be the same again. With reading, there is more knowledge. There is deeper thought. There are connections being made from one side of the brain to the other. And the distance between one connection and the next is infinite. It's a pleasant thought to think that there is infinity just inside the confines of the skull. Reading, is nothing short of the greatest human endeavor.

Active pastimes are more healthy than the passive ones. Reading a book, for instance, will excite the imagination. Watching TV, conversely, is watching someone else's imagination at work. When reading a character in a book, that character will look different to all of us. Even if the writer has described the character in very specific detail, that character will look different to all who read the book. This is not the case with a character we may meet in a movie. Although we may be taken with a character in a movie, we will probably know the character by the actor.

Besides the imagination of what a character may look like, or a scene may feel like, we have all the other emotions entitled to us. With good writing, we get to use those emotions. I don't know about you, but I think it feels good to feel.

And perhaps the greatest thing about reading in these modern digital, technical, cellular times is how subversive it can be. I know this is probably not the best reason to read or to become a reader. But think about it. When we look at our tiny screens, there are dozens of people trying to sell us something. These invisible salesmen know what we like, they know what we talk about, they know our exact location on Earth. There are so many people involved with us at any given moment and more still when we're fiddling with a phone. And all these people what our money, our vote, our decision.

When reading, it is just you and the book in your lap. No one else knows or needs to know what you're doing. Nobody is trying to market to you in the margins of that book. Well, if you liked this, then you will like that, etc. When reading, you are, you are, you are free. You are free and nothing can take that moment or that experience from you and no one can cheapen it with advertising.

If we all took to reading, I wonder if we could cripple the system. If everyone sat down right now in a sort of protest and began to read a book, then we would not be driving and therefore not using oil therefore not creating pollution and war. If we all sat down right now and began to read a book, then who would build the wall with Mexico, and who would continue the fight abroad? If we sat down to read, right now, all of us, then we would perhaps agree with Albert Camus who said “there are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.” If we all read a book, right now, altogether, could be create simultaneously anarchy and world peace? It's worth thinking about.