The Lost Art of Reading
"The television sets are those advisory colors. They tell us what we think and feel. They clothe us in fire and burn our reasoning to ash."
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury’s dystopian 1953 novel has now become our present reality instead of a dark, distant future. With libraries declining in usage and supermarket cashiers being replaced by robots, how soon will paper filled with words be replaced entirely in this new modern world?
It seems so easy to just start reading, yet to some, every step of the way feels impossible. The first challenge is picking up the right book. To many, finding the “perfect” book feels too intimidating with all of the choices out there. With that, here is a list of recommendations for a reader struggling to make a choice.
For the historical fiction nerds who also need just a little bit of action, and a little bit of a love story: The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. What starts as a separation between sisters becomes an epic war story that dives into the history behind the Appalachian trails. Hannah examines the depth of sisterhood as well as the line a mother draws when defending her children in a time of crisis. For any movie lovers, this also has an award-winning movie to watch afterwards. Buy here!
For the romantics at heart who have always wanted to experience being an exchange student, try picking up Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. She evokes a wonderful experience of French culture and the friends you find with it. The found family that we meet in the chapters of the novel is heartwarming, and ultimately it’s the perfect book to lead into a fall filled with crisp orange leaves and home-baked cookies. Buy here!
Lastly, for the horror-movie lovers who love a good chill or intestine-filled murder, take a break from the films and pick up Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare. What starts out as a move to a small town for teenage girl Quinn Maybrook, hoping for a fresh start and the chance for her father to receive a stable job, quickly turns into a rageful murder spree. But who is willing to believe a group of teenagers who claim a murderous clown based on the town’s mascot is trying to kill them? Cesare encapsulates the creepy crawly feeling of somebody watching you, and makes it feel like you're actually watching a movie. Buy here!
After picking the right book, figure out your main distraction. For some, including myself, devices like your phone or laptop can be the biggest challenge to sustained reading time. Turn off your ringer, put your phone on Do Not Disturb, and make sure you set it in the other room. Put on music, but not with words—only lo-fi or instrumental, to minimize confusion with lyrics and words.
Make the environment surrounding you comfortable and relaxing. Also, try to sit up—lying down leads to laziness, falling asleep, or just stopping reading. Grab the perfect snack or drink and anything else you need before sitting down. The key to reading is to stop procrastinating it and turning it into something that you hate even when picturing it. Try remembering the books of scary stories that you would reread as a kid and feel actually excited about reading.
For the people who haven’t consumed a book since middle school, last read a ChatGPT summary for a book they’re supposed to read for class, and are asking, "What's in it for me?” Multiple things.
1. Genuine enjoyment. If you think endless scrolling will at some point fulfill the craving you feel for completion and entertainment, you’re wrong. Social media is set up as a constant gamble for your attention, and different platforms work in similar ways to addiction (in which the high you receive from social media will start to recede). A good book, or even the completion of finishing something, not only creates a feeling of success but also creates new thought processes, which is definitely something to be proud of.
2. Reading creates empathy. Empathy, something the world cannot get enough of, seems to fall with the uproar of social media. The skill of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and connecting with them is learned through real-world interactions as well as reading. Every time you relate to characters or read those inner monologues of villains, you are strengthening the mental muscles you use when being empathic. Studies have shown that those who read fiction are working on their own ability of perspective-taking, by stepping into the minds of characters different from themselves. Your brain lights up in the areas of social understanding while reading, only further proving the positive effects.
3. Reading helps with sleep. One may assume that a quick scroll before bed will calm down those nerves in your head and put your body straight to sleep, but here’s where the implementation of reading takes the cake. When reading is done as a quiet bedtime habit, the nervous system calms down quickly. Scrolling, on the other hand, causes blue light to block the natural melatonin your body makes (to send you to sleep). The physical tension your body has been holding all day is finally released while you read, along with a lowered heart rate. All of the mental loops and noise that are circuiting through your brain are quickly replaced when reading. By having a steady thing to focus on, your brain and body calm down together instead of the endless, thoughtless process of scrolling through your phone.
In a world where incompetent people will soon be replaced by AI, get ahead of that prescribed fate and jump into the world of literature.