How Reading Changes Us
If there’s one thing my friends know about me, it’s that I love books. I have been a voracious reader since I was a little girl in elementary school. I always have an inexhaustible stack — in a variety of genres and disciplines — that I’m working my way through at any given time.
My love for reading has shaped me more than most things. But it seems that “bookworms” may be a dying breed. Back in 2015, Pew Research Center did a study on the reading habits of Americans. The study revealed that nearly 30 percent of Americans hadn’t read a book all year.
While true bookworms may be hard to come by, reading is a fruitful discipline (and an enjoyable one) that is worth adding to the regular rhythm in your life. Reading shapes us intellectually, emotionally and even spiritually.
We Are Made for Stories
As human beings, we are drawn to narratives. Storytelling is central to human existence. Stories shape our vision of the world and give us tools as we seek to make meaning of our experiences.
Stories also help us feel less alone, like we share a history or space of belonging with others. I’d argue that different genres of reading shape us in distinctive ways. Here are four categories of books and the effects each can have on the average reader.
Reading Fiction Helps Us Grow in Empathy and Understanding
Many people are drawn to reading fiction, which is no surprise given our natural love of story. In fact, as Cody C. Delistraty writes in his article on storytelling:
Stories can also inform people’s emotional lives. Storytelling, especially in novels, allows people to peek into someone’s conscience to see how other people think. This can affirm our own beliefs and perceptions, but more often, it challenges them.
With fiction, we enter into the stories of characters, which helps us remember how complex life is and how complex people (and their problems) are. Fiction can help us be gracious toward others as we understand that all of us are doing the best we can amid life’s many challenges and heartaches.
A study cited by Delistraty found that reading fiction considerably increased empathy toward others, particularly those the readers viewed as outsiders, such as those of a different nationality. So while reading fiction is entertaining, it also forms us — often unconsciously — into more empathetic individuals.
Fiction helps us recognize the commonalities we share as humans, and reminds us to guard against having too simplistic a view of people.
Reading Children’s Books Ignites Our Imaginations
As a believer trained in truth and absolutes, I can have a tendency to neglect the role imagination plays in my life and the formation of my faith. Like the power of story, imagination allows us to think about a world better than our own — a world where justice is fully realized or people love their neighbors. Children’s literature cultivates our imaginations. Simply put, the best children’s books are not just for children.
Reading History Helps Us Understand Our World
Rarely can we disconnect ideas from the historical context out of which they grew. In this way, history is a necessary part of understanding our world and being informed.
For example, American history reveals where we have been as a nation as well as where certain historical trajectories might lead us in the future.
Just Read!
If you’re not much of a bookworm, I challenge you to read three books this year. If you need ideas, choose titles from the reading lists I have linked to below. If you are a voracious reader, I challenge you to choose a book from an unfamiliar genre. If you gravitate toward theology, pick up a children’s story. If you love a good novel, try a historical biography.
As you expand your reading horizons, you may be surprised how much you enjoy a new author or topic. That one book may even take you on a wonderful journey of further reading. Remember, we are built for story. Jump into the pages of yours and see where it takes you.
