Read!

A couple of related C.S. Lewis quotes to consider:

• "God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than He is of any other slacker."
• "Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."
• "We read to know that we are not alone."

First, I'm not advocating that people read more because it's one of my goals for 2013. I hate when people make their own personal goals the duty of all those around them. A danger of going public with goals is driving everyone crazy around you with discussions and demands regarding how good the goals would be for them. I don't want to eat healthier just because others do, nor do I want to swim laps, join Twitter, begin composting, or start a Life Journal and structured biblical reading plan just because others have decided those priorities will improve their lives. I'm with you, but leave me alone and chase your own goals. I'll try to do the same.

Secondly, I'm not advocating that people read more because I'm an English teacher. I love the English language and literature, but there's a lot I have to teach that I wouldn't suggest as quality activities for the masses. The five paragraph essay, for instance. Most of Emily Dickinson's poetry. Hyphen rules.

Having said that, this post is a call for more reading. I believe that you and I will know more and live better the more we can read. Fiction, non-fiction, journalism, graphic novels - they all have something to offer. And the offer is much more than we can get from passive viewing. 

I just got done reading a book called Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books by Tony Reinke. Great book. It's easy to read and offers commentary from the perspective of an individual who was certainly not a prolific reader for a long period of time. Several passages in the book strike me as revelatory in terms of what reading has to offer, and I share them here:

"By opening a book we can stop talking and we begin listening."

"But stories do more than entertain and inspire us. Stories make claims about the world in which we live. Stories can also inform the mind and edify the soul. If we have the right sotry, we can learn a lot about our world, our problems, and even ourselves."

From John Piper: "What I have learned from about twenty years of serious reading is this: It is sentences that change my life, not books. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read, but if the 1% of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don't begrudge the 99%."

"Literature is life. If you want to know what, deep down, people feel and experience, you can do no better than read the stories and poems of the human race. Writers of literature have the gift of observing and then expressing in words the essential experiences of people. . . The rewards of reading literature are significant. Literature helps to humanize us. It expands our range of experiences. It fosters awareness of ourselves and the world. It enlarges our compassion for people. It awakens our imaginations. It expresses our feelings and insights about God, nature, and life. It enlivens our sense of beauty. And it is a constructive form of entertainment."

I can't say it any better than that. Read to learn, read to share, and read to see your own reflection inside the words of people who really know how to use words. Start somewhere - not necessarily Shakespeare or Whitman, necessarily. But somewhere. And talk about what your reading. It'll be worth your time.