Unfurl the sails of thought
It came as quite a shock to our Press editor. In a college class of journalism students whom he recently addressed, only two said they read something - anything other than blog or Facebook posts - regularly. Novels? Fat chance. If that's the meager case among young adults who aspire to make a living from words, what hope remains for the rest?
Books, especially fiction, have always been my oceans of escape. Distant worlds created in part by authors, but completed with my own imagination as I am left to augment settings with particulars of my choosing; hues, sounds, and flavors giving a tactile flesh to these unknown worlds to which I sail, far away from the stresses of daily life.
Far more effective than a hot bath or even a massage. And from each story I learn something - about other places and times, about others' perspectives, about myself. I wouldn't be the same person without them.
Books are quality nutrition for the soul. March is Reading Awareness Month.
Yes, people also escape with video games, TV, and social media, but without engaging their own imagination and thus without feeding potential for growth. When it's all done for you, it's McDonald's. When creative participation is required, imagination engaged, the experience reaches beyond dubious sustenance to gourmet richness.
Reading is fundamental. Fundamental to learning, yes; but also to thinking. To creativity and imagination, as applied in a very practical sense to life, to work, to growth.
Remember the bedtime story? It requires only 15 minutes a day, but is fading fast in American families. Children learn most of their vocabulary before puberty, averaging 3,000 words annually. According to Readaloud.org and a variety of studies:
1. Children now begin kindergarten having been read to as few as 25 hours in five years, compared to parents and some peers with as much as 1,000 hours at the same age. Jump ahead 20 years and consider the effects in this competitive world, with reading correlated to school success and income levels.
2. By age four, low-income children have heard an average 32 million fewer words, and understand thousands fewer, than wealthier peers; reading is fundamental to vocabulary.
3. Among all households 40 percent of families do not read aloud to children. Beyond literacy, this is a tragic loss of bonding opportunity.
4. If a child is not reading at grade level by the end of the first grade, then there is an 88 percent probability that won't change by fourth grade, a key indicator of long-term success.
According to research compiled by StatisticsBrain.com, 46 percent of adults can't understand their prescription labels. Forty-two percent of college grads will never read another book and 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy a single book in 2011.
Why change things? According to the National Literacy Trust, regular book readers have not only better vocabularies, but also more confidence and greater understanding of other people, issues, and cultures. Reading also benefits society; book readers are also more likely to engage in their communities and be better decision makers.
Don't know where to start? Local libraries have lists of Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winners in fiction. Many compile lists of authors by category (mystery, biography, history, romance, etc.). Something for everyone to curl up with at night, and without that eye-straining bright screen.
"The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty." - Pablo Neruda
Sholeh Patrick, J. D. is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who misses cuddling with babies over bedtime stories. Contact her at sholehjo@hotmail.com.