A Plea for Reading

Seriously. I'm doing this database install that I thought would take me an hour, but my sql skills are not what they used to be and I'm going to be here forever waiting for things to run, so I thought I'd write.

I've been thinking a lot about reading lately. I was thinking about it the other day while having a conversation with my mom, who loves to read, and whom I remember as being an avid reader. And she said that she hadn't read a book in months. And then there were some Facebook posts here and there in the last couple of weeks from people, people whom I remember as being lovers of the written word, mentioning how little they "get to read" these days. Like, really, a lot of posts about that. Not one or two. A lot.

And then I went to see "Book of Eli," which is not the greatest movie that you will ever see. Nor is it the most subtle because the message of that movie is that religion is REALLY GOOD. Except that that's not really the message, because if you can stick it out until the last fifteen minutes then you learn that the message of the movie is about the importance of the written word as a way of preserving and potentially salvaging what we are as humanity.¹

And I don't buy this "I don't have time to read" crap. And I think it's important that we reverse this trend. Though I can understand how it's happened. We have busy lives, and when we pause from them ever so briefly, it is much easier and SEEMS much more relaxing to stare at the television or the laptop. Heck, it probably is actually more relaxing. That doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. The average person is online upwards of 13 hours a week for PERSONAL use. If you read 200 words a minute (average) that means if you got offline for ONE HOUR you'd be able to cover about an entire chapter of a average print size book with 20 page chapters.

I used to have this thing that I would say to people who complained about being out of shape. It was all life coachy and all. It went something like this: "For all the things you're worried about controlling in your life (cause you KNOW 90% of everybody whom I hang out with is a control freak), the two hardest things you'll ever have to get control of are your own mind and your own body. Because the mind is healthiest when it's active, but it naturally desires to be resting. And the body is healthiest when it's active, but it naturally desires to be on your couch."

I think I probably said it better back then.

And we treat the whole "body" activity thing like it's really important (or many of us do). We take what we eat seriously. We go to the gym. We do these things because it's important to be healthy. But I think we're starting to forget that it's important to be smart, and to work out our brains, too.

And it doesn't count if you're reading Facebook. And frankly, it doesn't count if you're reading Cnn.com or (the antiquity) of a newspaper, or somebody's blog (though that should in no way imply that you should not read mine). I'm talking about reading books -- and on a Kindle is fine if you must. Books in which complicated themes, and sometimes simple ones, are explored on levels that a blog post or a newspaper article can't being to touch. Books that are about inner dialogues so that we can think about our own inner dialogues. Books in which people experience and build relationships with each other so that we can develop models for our own relationships with people, and the world, and ideas that we may or may not agree with. Books in which the writing doesn't *have* to be explanatory and therefore can often be beautiful and change the actual language that we think, and sometimes even speak, in to one that brings us closer to understanding ourselves and the universe around and inside us. Books that are not necessarily written in the last five years so that we can understand what it is that our culture came from. Books that will make you think about yourself and what you want and what you believe in. Books that use words to describe feelings and therefore make us better at describing our feelings. Books that teach us empathy.

Books. They're as important as jogging. Seriously.

Now, there are not many things that I do better than most of you. You do not want to ask me about how to paint, or sing, or fix a car (or anything mechanical, really). You probably shouldn't ask me about raising children, because just this week I fed two small children an entire bowl of cupcake icing. I would not advise asking me questions pertaining to American history or higher math. We know after tonight that you do not want to ask me about manual database installs, and for sure we understand that you wouldn't want to ask me for relationship advice (though, shockingly, people do with alarming frequency). But here is one thing I do better than probably 99% of you: Unless it is midnight and I have literally been gone since seven in the morning, I read a minimum of 10 pages a day FROM A BOOK whether I want to or not.²

It's true. I do. Obviously, some days I read more. But some days those 10 pages are hard, and boring, and I'm not in the mood, and I'd rather be on my couch watching the twentieth rerun of "CSI Miami" that week. But I do it anyway. Just like I work out every day, even if it's just for 10 minutes on the Wii. And I get it, because I don't always want to read those 10 pages. It's so much easier to go mentally digest somebody's Facebook note. Or to scan the headlines on eonline. Or to turn on the tv. Those things, at base, ARE more relaxing. Because the mind's natural inclination, just like the body, is to rest. When in fact, you will feel better in both cases when they are properly worked out.

And it concerns me that so many people I know whom I would describe as "people who love to read" really.just.aren't. So many distractions. So many other directions to point your mind. I get it. I do. I'm susceptible to it too. But, as with many things, if we don't keep reading...why will the children? If we don't present reading, and the value of books, as important, why will they ever think that they are? And honestly, as corny as this sounds, with Oprah leaving network TV, who's really going to be the advocate for the importance of reading? That's a loss whether we want to admit it or not.

It's January. I can guarantee that 50% of all people I know just made some bold pronouncements about how they're going to work out more and eat better. That's awesome. How about we all make some bold proclamations about just reading a chapter a week. Or something like that. Look what happened when we all stopped working out and going to the gym and playing sports and WALKING places. Second fattest nation in the world. Do we want to stop reading because why would we want to read when there are so many more easily digestible ways to absorb information these days? That's awesome. Because then eventually we can be the second stupidest nation, too.

Please, make it a priority to read this year. Even if it's just one book through to completion. Even if it's hard. It's important. I'm about to start At Swim-Two-Birds. Maybe you should read it. We could discuss.

This is my plea for more reading in 2010. It's important.

¹ Here's the thing, by the way, about that movie. Without giving spoilers away, man, the fact that the entire thing is contextualized around the King James Bible really just kind of makes the whole movie unfocused. Is the movie about God and his message to Eli? Or is the movie about preserving culture through writing? I'm not clear, and I've been thinking about it for DAYS now.

^2. Inevitably, when I said everybody has time to read, at least a handful of people rolled their eyes and said "She doesn't have kids. She has no idea what busy is." And that angers me. Know what my favorite Sex and the City episode is? This one. I don't know what you think I do all day, but it's not run around and get massages and manicures. Just because I live differently than you do, it doesn't mean that I live more easily than you do. That is all.

³ By the way, manual db install...STILL running.