Given that I’m a writer, it probably comes as no surprise that I love to read. My room is lined with bookshelves containing history books, writing information, biographies about famous people, and my favorite: fiction, the best of which is historical romance. The accumulation of books is what happens when you have friends with books they’re looking to find a home for and when the only gift you ask for on birthdays and Christmas is books. I’ve had friends who have commented that my room feels more like a library than a bedroom.
Not only do I have a personal collection of books, but I also love to visit the library and checkout a whole stack of books. With me, it’s not a case of having to read. It’s a case of limiting my reading. After all, life goes on with no respect for whether you’re in the middle of a good book or not. For some reason, weeds still grow in the garden, the dirty dishes still pile up, and the cows think they need to be on the opposite side of the fence that is supposed to be containing them.
So whenever someone tells me that they aren’t a reader, I can’t help but feel incredibly sorry for them. And because of that, I’ve thought up my own list of reasons to answer the question, “Why read?” Here are the four reasons off the top of my head:
#1—This is probably the most common reason that people (such as teachers) give for why you ought to read: Reading will teach you new things. It’s thrown around a lot, but that does nothing to diminish from its truth. Not only will books teach us new things, it will stretch our mental muscles and expand our thinking. I’ve learned all kinds of things just from flipping open odd books and reading them. Such as, the average cowboy’s age during the 1880s was twenty-four, Nebraska’s first settlement was Fort Robinson, founded in 1819, elephants are the only animals that can’t jump, and women blink nearly twice as many times as men (my siblings couldn’t figure out exactly what that proves, but it’s got to mean something).
#2—Reading will ignite your curiosity. Before I take a vacation, I like to read about the area we’ll be visiting. While I was in the beginning stages of writing Settle My Heart, our family took a vacation to Wyoming and I had a chance to visit Fort Laramie, a place featured in my book. I could have spent all day there, but because of our time schedule, we spent only one hour on the site. I had done a lot of research and reading on the area, so I knew exactly what I wanted to see and was able to make a fast tour while getting the most I could out of it (but to be honest, I later thought of some things I missed that I really would have liked to see, but . . . maybe on another vacation).
On the flip side, during that same trip we visited Yellowstone National Park, and although a friend had loaned us a book on the park, we were so busy getting ready for the trip that we scarcely even looked at it. We had a fun time, but when we came home and started flipping through the Yellowstone book, we found all kinds of sights that we had missed or drove right passed without noticing. And that was disappointing.
#3—It’s just plain fun. For me, reading a book is far and above better than eating a dessert. After all, a dessert only lasts for a moment, but a story can be mulled over for days or weeks or a lifetime.
I grew up on the Little House on the Prairie series, and although the books were brand new when I first got them for Christmas, now their covers are carefully taped and certain pages have to be turned very gently so that they won’t fall out.
When my siblings and I were younger, we loved to play Narnia, a series by C. S. Lewis that Dad read to us every night before bed. Each of us played the role of one of the Pevensie children, and we spent hours running around outside holding court in the barn, which we pretended was our great castle Cair Paravel, and going out into battle against the White Witch or the Calormenes, whichever we felt like taking on that day.
And my favorite book of all? A Gown of Spanish Lace by Janette Oke. I read that book so many times that I memorized parts of it.
#4—What better way to learn more about God than through the pages of His Word? There is no greater source of truth than the Bible, and I believe it is the single most important book anyone could read. Yes, I love historical fiction and wouldn’t want to do without it, but I couldn’t do without my Bible.
So next time you have a friend who wonders why on earth you would spend your spare time reading, be armed with your answer and ready to use it. After all, the only person worth pitying is them.
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything other than a book! . . . When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
Jane Austen (author of Pride and Prejudice)