188 | Read books, save the world
Reading time: 4 minutes
“Reading is staring at paper with tiny black marks all over it while hallucinating wildly.”
How delightful is that? How completely bonkers in its accuracy? I saw this recently and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I’m glad for the opportunity to offload it here.
In recent days as the U.S. government sustains a revolution, and I’ve learned political details via friends in the locker room at the pool, I’ve wondered if the antiquated ritual of reading is actually me putting my head in the sand. Reading is a big part of my life. One of the reasons I pursue this antiquated ritual is that it keeps me from doom-scrolling social media. I’ve wondered if I’m relying on books for escape from the troubling reality that surrounds me.
I’m aware that I need to remain aware. I wince through the headlines every morning. I feel a responsibility to pay attention to what’s happening in the world. But would those 2 hours each day be better spent researching authoritarian regimes, deep-diving into Dr. Heather Cox Richardson’s history lessons, and creating a detailed bunker plan?
But then I realized reading books might be the answer, not the problem. More of us need to be reading books. More of us need to be reading more books more often.
Books aren’t avoidance; they’re acceptance.
They’re how we learn about ideas that aren’t our own. They’re how we view differences with curiosity instead of hostility. Books are mind-openers.
Here’s how that works:
READING MAKES YOUR BRAIN STRONGER
Your brain is like a muscle. You have to use it to strengthen it. Reading is a great way to exercise your brain without involving or disturbing people around you who just want some peace and quiet. Reading improves memory because you have to track what happened on page 12 when you’re on page 200. You have to keep characters straight, and who said “That’s not my car!”, or what color the door was on the haunted house. A better memory is necessary for this moment in our lives. Thank you for doing your part.
READING INCREASES EMPATHY
It’s easier to understand how others feel when we read a book from their perspective. Even if we read from the perspective of another person in our exact shoes, we learn new things. Not everyone thinks or feels the same as you do. This mind-blowing nugget brought to you by books.
READING IMPROVES SLEEP
Who among us would turn down improved sleep? I don’t know how it works or why, but reading shifts my nervous system into a lower gear. My thoughts become linear, organized and tidy. My breathing becomes deep and slow. I am focused, but alert to the details of the story I’m reading. When I turn out the light to sleep, my mind has been calmed. This is how to get through the deeply disturbing events that are cheese-grating your mind.
READING BUILDS VOCABULARY
We need more ways to say “What the fuck.” Books can help here.
A historical novel: Zounds! Forsooth, what devilry is this?
Shakespeare: What witchcraft doth unfold before mine eyes?
Romance: Merciful heavens, my heart cannot bear this scandal!
Mystery: Something isn’t adding up. What in the name of Holmes is going on?
Adventure: By all the lost treasures of Atlantis, what madness is this?
Young Adult: Wait, hold up—are you kidding me right now?
Children’s: Oh snickerdoodles! That’s a humdinger!
One sentence at a time, one chapter after another, we can stack books against ignorance. Books can save us from all of the travails. The beauty of books is that there’s a story for everyone. Find yours:
The Libby App | So you can read books for free from the library on your tablet or phone.
Kindle | If you want to read books on a device, but don’t want to be distracted by other apps in the same space. You can download purchases or download library books to your Kindle.
Kindle App | Sometimes I buy books if they’re not available at the library, and the only way to read purchased books is with the Kindle App on my iPad
Eagle Harbor Book Company | Bainbridge Island’s favorite (and only) local bookstore. You can order books for delivery.
Spotify Audiobooks | You get 15 hours of audiobook listening with your Premium subscription. I love this for new releases that won’t come available at the library for months.
Bookshop.org | An online bookseller that connects readers with independent booksellers worldwide. For supporting smaller, local bookstores.
I hope you’re able to join me in my antiquated ritual of expanding acceptance and understanding.
If you enjoy reading my stories, there are a couple ways you can say “thanks!”
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Thanks for helping, Nugget of Wonder.
When I found myself going bonkers regarding the state of American democracy, I broke up with traditional social media so I wouldn't doom scroll and get angry/scared, and told myself I was pressing pause on fully engaging with the political state of affairs until after I finished my novel. (I'm on the Epilogue.)
I've read a ton of books about WWII (my novel takes place in Nazi-occupied France) so when people talk about the similarities between 1930s Germany and the current administration, know all too well what they are speaking of. So I guess what I'd add to your great list is that reading also allows us to make connections that we otherwise might not be able to make FOR OURSELVES. (as in absent the "noise" --especially that of unreliable and propaganda-based news.)
Reading is also my salvation.... I loved the Book Exchange photo and the nod to Eagle Harbor--my go-to for books.
I really enjoy your blog. It is refreshing and intellectually stimulating. I really should send you the money I am going to send Amazon for a copy of 'Spitfires' by Becky Aikman, about the American women who flew in WW II. They knew what they wanted and went after it, so there are a lot of steamy, passion filled nights and rampant promiscuity. They didn't know if they were going to be around tomorrow, so best to 'seize the day'. They were quite familiar with the F-word as well as a lot of other idioms of the English language that they failed to teach us in High School, in order to fit in with the men they had to deal with. I may or may not ever get around to reading it, but it will be on the top of the pile of all the other books I hope someday to read. I am also not optimistic that there will be passages in the 'Book' of those late night, below deck, bouts of unbridled passion bobbing on the Great Pacific or frolicing under the coconut palms on some remote atoll.
My thought is that there are two groups of people in the world, readers and doers. The 'doers' are afflicted with an excess amount of grey matter on the right side of the brain that keeps creating fascinating projects and things that need to be explored and realized. They are happy playing with glass, planting and sculpting the landscape, playing in the Market and deciding which of the thousands of projects, currently on hold, they should tackle today rather than take the time to settle down and read a book. The best I can do is get the Sunday paper a day early on Saturday and hope I can make it through the pages by the following Friday. That is all the sobering news I can take that stresses my psyche. We need more 'readers' to consume the mountains of books that the publishers keep printing to entice the reading public. Thank you for your dedication.