I have read 50 books so far this year, though it doesn’t feel like I’m really reading that much. I simply cut out the hours I might have scrolled through social media feeds or listened to half-baked podcasts, which freed up more time for reading books. I believe we are experiencing a golden age for reading with technologies like ebooks and digital audio, offering the ability to consume books wherever we are, whenever we want. More published works are available to us, most within seconds, than at any point in history.
Despite these riches, one in four adults in the U.S. won’t pick up a book this year. The typical adult reads just four books a year. Teenagers spend only 4.2 minutes per day reading during weekends and holidays (excluding homework-related reading). According to research by Common Sense Media, these same teenagers spend nine hours a day with digital technology, entertaining themselves with streaming video, listening to music, and playing games. With all that interactive entertainment, it seems the lowly book doesn’t stand a chance.
I’ve been thinking about books and the benefit of reading after attending a recent talk here on Vashon Island with Nancy Pearl, a former Seattle librarian, the author of Book Lust, and a lifelong proponent of reading. Nancy reads a lot, and the two hundred people who came out on a Sunday night for the event clearly share her passion for books. Looking around, I pegged the average age of the audience at around 60. During the talk, I noted a shared sense of handwringing about the demise of the book with young people. An audience member asked about whether young adults would eventually turn to books after growing up on a diet of digital entertainment.
“I hope so,” Nancy said after a pause. “But I’m not sure.” This younger generation has grown up on the immediate gratification of video games and the endless quick bites of scrolling social media. Books require a sustained mental focus, and that may be lacking without constant exercise. Will they ever come around to books?
A recent conversation with my seventeen year old son confirmed something I had long suspected. He holds a low regard for reading despite being raised by two constant readers and surrounded by books throughout our sprawling farmhouse. “You old people don’t get it,” he replied after I pressed him to explain. He lumps books and broadcast television in the same useless basket of low transfer technologies. This hurts as I write this from my little book-lined study, though I can see his point about television.
I’m hopeful he will come around to the lure of reading in his twenties or thirties. I’m chalking it up to a natural rebelliousness inherent in being a teenager. Perhaps if he were raised in a home without readers or books, he’d be carrying around a battered copy of Infinite Jest to the dismay and consternation of his non-reading parents.
This vague worry about the demise of the book has put me on the defensive though. I have a deep-rooted belief about the importance and necessity of books, but I never tried to articulate precisely why I believe this. Might my assumptions be misplaced?
After a little reflection, most all the benefit I receive from reading falls in one of these four categories:
Entertainment. Whether it’s walking alongside Gandalf in the Shire or crouched down next to Jack Reacher behind a boulder with gun-toting bad guys nearby, reading provides an unmatched entertainment. MRI scans of the brain show when people read about an experience, they display stimulation within the same neurological regions as when they go through that experience themselves. Talk about the ultimate virtual reality! When the page disappears, and your imagination takes over, even the largest screen can’t match the power of the experience.
Health. A less well-known benefit of reading is its positive impact on your health. Reading certainly provides access to knowledge on how to live a more healthy life. Did you know that reading can help with depression, stress, and is considered an essential brain training exercise that reduces the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life? Further, a Yale study of adults over the age of 50 showed that readers outlived non-readers by almost two years.
Learning. A near-universal trait of highly successful people is a constant quest for self-improvement and learning. Like most U.S. Presidents, Harry S. Truman was a voracious reader in his youth, reading some 4,000 books spanning every subject from his town library: “Believe it or not I read ’em all… Maybe I was a damn fool, but it served me well when my terrible trial came.” For me, the main benefit from reading hasn’t come from textbooks, but from specialized knowledge about subjects I taught myself through books. For example, Books taught me how to cure chronic back pain, sail a sloop, build elaborate financial models, lead a team, write a software program, build a garden, and cook delicious meals for my family. I will admit that the internet has become a fantastic resource for learning, and in some cases, it is better than staid old books. For example, fixing my lawnmower via free YouTube videos or learning the craft of storytelling with a Neil Gaiman MasterClass. But for in-depth, immersive learning of a new subject, I still prefer reading.
Wisdom. Perhaps the greatest gift of reading is wisdom and developing a deeper understanding of the meaning of life itself. Anne Lamott sums it up so well: “What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.” How else can we step inside the head of another person, even someone long dead, and see and feel the world as they saw it? Ceridwen Dovey believes that reading “is one of the few remaining paths to transcendence, that elusive state in which the distance between the self and the universe shrinks.” People have felt this way about reading for millennia. King Ramses II of Egypt had a special chamber for his books; above the door were the words “House of Healing for the Soul.”
Considering these benefits, it seems crazy not to dedicate time every day to read. At average adult reading speeds and typical book lengths, you could finish 25 books in a year with just 30 minutes of reading a day. Between your commute, bedtime, and all those little periods of dead time during the day when you reach for your phone, pick up a book instead. Before long, you’ll develop a daily reading habit that will make this feel natural, and over time you will reap the amazing benefits of reading.
As we look forward to the new year, set a goal to read more books, and then set aside time every day to read. Your future self will thank you!