Books: Why They Matter

            Last year at this time I was writing about “blockbuster season”—the coming of the big summer movies and what we can do to make the most of them. This summer’s offerings are more anticipated than last summer’s with such films as Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and Fantastic Four 2 having many of us counting down to opening weekends. But as I sat to write this column it occurred to me that I’ve been writing for the Lookout on cultural issues (mostly movies) for over a year without once talking about books—and I’m an English teacher! It’s time to give reading its due and take several articles to do so. We should talk about how to read books and what the best are, but I want to start with why books matter.

Pleasure

            To begin with, we shouldn’t underestimate the pleasure that reading gives us. It begins with holding a new book (or a very old one you find in a flea market somewhere) in your hands, cracking the cover, looking at the pictures, the dust jacket summary, the contents page. Just walking with a book in hand makes you feel smarter, like you’re about to be doing something very important. On-line or E-books don’t cut it for most of us. We have to have the book in our hands, lap or on the desk, a pen or pencil nearby so we can mark a really good passage. When we start the story, the rest of the world vanishes for a while and we go on a journey that delights. Sometimes the pleasure is in experiencing a brand new place, sometimes it’s the suspenseful anticipation of what’s going to happen next, and sometimes it’s in figuring out whodunit. God gives us many good and true pleasures. Among them, I think, are books.

Patience

            Of course movie stories delight us too—movies share many positive qualities with books. There are some ways, however, in which the two are direct opposites. One thing books can do that movies can’t is teach us patience. To commit to reading a book is to commit to hours of page turning. It means putting a halt to whatever else we’re doing in life and focusing on the story. We have to be patient to get through a book, or else we have to give up on it either from frustration or boredom. In the fast paced world of modern technology and mass media, books stubbornly demand time and attention.

            This is why many people don’t read or can’t read well. As big a fan as I am of movies and television, they rob us of patience simply by being what they are. Even at their best, movies and television affect our ability to patiently work through stories, difficult puzzles, even problems in life. They provide quick closure to the conflicts they present. They stimulate us at a rapid pace. People raised in the television age are less patient than their parents, less able to wait for the rewards of book stories. People raised in the digital age are even less patient than that—without rapid and constant stimulation, they bore easily. It is hard for today’s children to read books, not just because they’re bad readers, but because they’re bored readers. Still, there are few better solutions to their impatience or ours than the discipline of reading a book. Most of us say we never have time to read—that’s all the more reason we need to make time for it. Think about it in these terms: the Bible is a Christian’s source for truth and should be central to his/her life—do you enjoy reading it, or is it a chore? And have you taken the time in your life yet to read the Bible all the way through?

            We need to make time for ourselves to read the Bible and many other books, and we need to make time for our children to be readers as well. Electronic media don’t have to make our kids stupid and impatient. The other day my wife, daughter and I enjoyed a Discovery channel show on Borneo which taught us a lot. But if television will make our kids less patient just by being what it is, then we need to help them develop the patience for reading by making it as important in their lives as movies or computers. Small children need a lot less television, and they need to be read to. For older children (as well as yourselves) try having hours every day or at least every week when the house is unplugged: no music, no TV, no computer. A bad habit I’m trying to get over is turning on the TV just to surf channels. If my weekly “shows” aren’t on, I need to leave the TV off. I try to make myself read a little bit every day, and I always carry a book with me wherever I go in case I’m “stuck” somewhere (like a doctor’s office) and can use the time to read.

            Well, out of the ten reasons I was going to list as to why books are good for us, I’ve only managed to list two: patience and pleasure. But maybe that’s okay. Maybe talking about books ought to require several articles…and a little patience.