Why You Should Read More

 

If you haven't caught some of the chatter lately, articles and features have been hitting the internet about how little Americans read. A summary report showed something like 19% of Americans read 82% of all the books published last year, and 40% of people read no books last year. No books! 

If this is not concerning to you, it should be. More and more in our culture the young people today do not know how to read. They are not assigned full books to read in school (just excerpts), and they think a book written in the1960s is "old English". Dumbed down language is used in so many texts and popular books today, there is no stretching or learning to shape the minds of children. There are no bigger, deeper questions being asked.

Overall reading, thinking, and writing is in decline and as a result we are moving toward a society where the few who read and think will be a small niche as the only ones who read. To me, this is a dystopian idea. It begs the question - what about all those who don't read or write or think? They become slaves to someone or something that does the thinking for them.

Did you know that since reading is a learned skill (we aren't born knowing instinctively how to read) it can be un-learned? If reading is not taught in its depth to the younger generations, it will disappear. And what will replace it?

You can learn more from these great resources - watch a video from The War on Beauty here, and read the article here in The Atlantic.

This all prompted me to read a classic book How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler, which was written in 1940, and I think should be required reading for every high schooler. In this book he walks us through the different dimensions of reading - levels that include elementary, inspectional, analytical, and syntopical reading. Then he gives tips on how to read different kinds of books, from nonfiction, fiction, philosophy, science, mathematics, history, etc. He emphasizes that we can learn only from our "betters". We should read above our level, not below, to challenge and stretch our thinking. Ask questions as you read, annotate, re-read, and write out in your own words what the author is saying, the arguments the author is using, and your own analysis if it is truth or not.

I love what Mortimer writes - "The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read. As readers, they carried on a conversation with other authors, just as each of us carries on a conversation with the books we read, though we may not write other books."

This has been my theory since college. Every time I read C.S. Lewis he mentions various books and authors he reads, and I go look them up. It's how I have gotten to know so many authors over the years, is by reading what Lewis read - John Milton, G.K. Chesterton, Plato, George MacDonald, etc.

You should read more. And not just any book that is simply entertainment and requires no thought - but the good, great, amazing books (most of which are old) that challenge you, stretch you, and make you think. The old literature that presents difficult characters or scenarios that you have to decide who is right, and why. The books that show you something about what it is to be human. Books that show you through story the meaning of life, or heroism, or strife, of true faith, freedom, and of deeper truth.