Reading is one of the essentials of the good life. It is not just the familiar pleasures that come from responsive reading that matter (like fear, excitement, a swashbuckling plot), but rather the effects of these on how we live our lives and see the world. The truth is, that in our society, reading is no longer accorded the respect it deserves. Let me tell you a secret: reading is much more than you think it is.
Reading, compared to alternative forms of media, is a particular focused form of activity. By reading I am of course referring to books (and not magazines and newspapers and comics and billboards and breakfast cartons). Reading books is a peculiarly focused activity that takes place in private-time and makes a fundamental difference in the way, say, a movie cannot. A play cannot be stopped and reprised in the way pages can be re-read, whether to relish something extraordinarily good or to understand something better. How many times have you re-read a sentence to saviour its meaning or prose? Exactly. A novel is present all at once, and can be gone over and back, re-entered, skimmed, sampled, devoured, and written all over in the margin, at your leisure. This adds a certain value to its contents. And it is the contents that matter most.
What is the difference between watching a movie and reading the book of the same movie? It is only thorough a book that you can see what someone is thinking and really feeling. Think about it for a second. You can enter some one's mind much better in words than on the big screen. The big screen shows you what the character is doing. Only the written word can tell you what they are thinking. Books allows us to consider our own experiences, seeing in the mirror of the story reflections of our own world and life, and the universal aspect of oneself, at the revealing angles that result from seeing them refracted into other guises. It's like stepping into another's shoes for awhile.
Another is the opportunity that books give us to peer into experiences we ourselves have not had, and might never have, in other lives and 'exotic' ways of life. This gift of books is in my opinion priceless. Being restricted to personal experience and observation of only what lies in one's immediate circles is no guarantor of becoming wise and perceptive. But, to be a fly on the wall in a foreign land, or a far away place in time, observing different lives, watching peoples do things differently, understanding their world view and how they see the world through their eyes; the chance to sympathise with people you will never meet, to partake in choices and desires that have never occurred to one, to feel the fear of a long sea voyage, to understand what it means to be a slave, to trek on a long desert voyage with the Danakil - that is the gift that comes from thoughtful reading. The better the novel, the richer the possibilities it offers in this and all its other dimensions.
Most importantly, good reading promises an enlargement of our sympathies. And sympathy is the basis of the fair moral community. To sympathise and empathise with others is to understand their interests, needs, choices and motives. Because reading promotes insights into oneself and others, it thereby helps promote the good life in the good society.
Please read more. It's good for you! - A dose a day - keeps the devils at bay.
Thevoraciouscaterpillar.com
Readingislikevitaminpills.com
Readingexersisesthebrainmusclestoliftcontinents.com
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