I have conversations with people all of the time about my bookclub, almost everyone says to me “when do you get the time to read”? Or, “I hate reading because it’s just too time consuming”.
I have realised that both of these things are completely untrue.
Yes, we live in a fast paced world where we want instant gratification or it takes too long to read so we would rather watch a 2 minute video giving us an overview. The list goes on with the different ways we can get compressed information quickly.
Over the years people have even realised that the more “connected” we are through technology, social media etc, the more “disconnected” we actually are in terms of human interaction, community and people engagement.
However, I have also realised that people do in fact want to read, or will read, you just need to give them something that they are interested in, something that explains things well or shows them a different way of looking at a habitual perception or even belief.
Personally, I recently (and when I say recently I mean over the last 3 years) taken up reading books that have actual stories (not self help, not biographies or get rich quick publications) but actual thought provoking, showing imagination, gripping books. I also received a lot of flack from some of my friends saying that I’m silly to read stories because I’m too old or whatever the case is but this is also an incorrect perception.
Reading, especially with stories or novels is so much more than reading a plot and following a series of events to see an inevitable outcome. Yes, of course thats part of it but through reading our imaginations are stimulated, we start thinking about different outcomes, we get to study characters feelings, thoughts and minds and this helps us understand the complexity of the human condition which in effect, helps us in our real and everyday lives. We begin to learn about ourselves as well and in figuring out characters ways, actions and feelings, we start to understand more about ourselves and others.
There are of course many other advantages of reading where you learn about history, places, developing areas or really bad ones that you would otherwise be less likely to learn about. If you really feel challenged by some of an authors thoughts and arguments it can help you develop stronger opinions about a topic or get you to figure out what really bothers you about what the author has said.
Reading books gives us a chance to escape into our own imagination – with the author guiding us. Yes it may seem whimsical and floaty, but honestly, whats the alternative with most TV shows these days showing seriously strange things making it the new normal – it’s not normal!
In a nutshell, reading is not redundant despite the popular, “I don’t have time to read” stock saying. Reading is a choice and a habit that is really not that difficult to cultivate or really enjoy.
