By Anna Kosta-Rodriguez
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
-Ray Bradbury
Reading is just as important a pastime as anything else and the truth is, we don’t read as much as we used to or even as much as we think we do. We’ve been told that reading can help reduce mental decline, make you a better decision-maker, increase emotional intelligence and career outlook, etc., all of which is true.2 But, even though we’ve been told this and shown the statistics, that doesn’t mean we’ll all magically start reading more.
As we become adults, with the unfortunate side effect of adult responsibilities, we often forgo reading for leisure. Partially because our time and our brain power are being used for other things which have been deemed as “most important” – things like work, college, family, chores, bills, pets, etc. Not that any of those things aren’t important, but when we choose to make ourselves so very busy every single day, we don’t give ourselves the time to sit still and read.
Honestly, it’s more than just giving ourselves the time to read. As adults, we often feel guilty when we’re not doing something which produces results, something productive which brings in an income. As parents, we often feel guilty when we’re not doing something “worthwhile” for the family or the household. Plus, we’re going into year three of a worldwide pandemic which has caused so very many changes on our daily lives, how we interact with people, our jobs, our families – everything.
One might argue that since a large portion of people are “staying home” these days, more people should be reading, and under non-stressful circumstances that argument might be valid. But, when our minds are filled with sickness, job insecurities, school closures, etc, we don’t have the brain capacity to think of much else than what has become the stressful daily norm.
“I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.”
-C.S. Lewis
Did you know that people aged 15–44 in the United States spend 10 minutes or less per day reading2? With the rise of so many different forms of social media and the penchant for people to just scroll through videos hour after hour, it’s no wonder the number of minutes read is so low. For a lot of people, myself included, reading has been an escape, an outlet, since we were kids. But, even those of us who used to be voracious readers are not reading nearly as much as we used to.
So, the question remains: what can we do? Or, more accurately, how can we make sure we’re reading more than we are now? The key is working it into your schedule. Pick a time, maybe when before you start your day, or after the kids go to bed, or during your lunch break at work. As of 2019, the average American watches 2.8 hours of television a day.3 Those numbers have changed of course since the beginning of the pandemic, but it’s safe to say that people have more time on their hands than they think they do, which means you can use some of that time to read instead of binge watching more episodes of The Office, again.
It’s important to note that not all people will be able to make the time to read, or even want to. And with everything going on in the world, I can completely relate to just chilling in front of the TV as a way to de-stress. I’m actually watching NCIS for the millionth time as I’m writing this blog post, so there you have it. Another important thing is that watching TV, or even just having it on in the background, can help people relax just as music or the right company can. So, it’s not all bad.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one.”
-George R.R. Martin
Books can open up all kinds of worlds and ideas for the reader. It increases your brain’s capacity for creativity and for many, again myself included, it makes the imagination run wild with all kinds of what ifs. When the novel you’re reading ends, you often want more. Why didn’t the hero/heroine end up with the potential love interest? Or, if they did, what happens next? Why was that annoying dog mentioned at the beginning, but never again, I mean really what’s up with that?
Even when books are made into film or TV shows, it’s not quite the same as reading the story yourself, cover to cover. Because when you read it yourself, or listen to the audio version, you imagine things differently, how people and places look or sound, etc. When you allow yourself to use those parts of your brain where your creativity and imagination lie, your general outcome of life will change. There’s no better time than now to change the way you look at your life and the world!
“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.”
-Margaret Fuller
Sources:
1] https://medium.com/no-echo/you-dont-read-as-many-books-as-you-think-you-do-199440d2cb32
2] https://comfyliving.net/reading-statistics/
3] https://www.bls.gov/charts/american-time-use/activity-leisure.htm
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