The Importance of Reading and Everything Else!

By Energion Publisher Henry Neufeld

As a publisher, I obviously have a bit of bias on this subject, but I also embrace the variety of ways we have to acquire information via modern technology.

I have been reading various articles that bemoan the fact that Americans are reading less. Of course, this is bad for the publishing industry. But what does it do to the country as a whole?

Let me suggest that we need to acquire information in different forms, but that reading, whether online or in print, whether from an ebook reader or a physical book, provides a way of gaining knowledge that is more likely to be thoughtful, and is more likely to be checked than other forms.

It is quite possible to learn from videos. I do this regularly, especially when I need to learn how to use software more effectively. A video from the manufacturer or from other users of software that I use regularly, especially graphics and page layout software, is often very effective presented in video form.

A few weeks ago I needed to change the blower fan on my truck. I’m not a mechanic. I couldn’t even play a mechanic on TV. But I can follow directions. The directions in the video, which were accompanied by pictures of the parts and tools needed, were very effective. I could have gotten that information from a service manual. I have done so in the past. But this was easier.

I listen to some audiobooks. This differs from reading. One of the great benefits of listening is that I can use this approach when doing other things, such, for example, as working on my car, or walking on my treadmill (too hot right now outside!). I embrace this technology as valuable.

Movies are especially good at conveying emotional messages. They often provide a visual set of clues that can go with the story and enhance the experience of the story. In my opinion, this is important. Stories should be an experience that involves the reader, and not a collection of data.

At the same time, I often don’t like a movie that depicts events in a book I’ve read. The main reason is that I’ve often imagined the world of the book in my mind as a read it, and the movie is unlikely to share the same vision. In fact, other readers won’t.

This is a strength of reading. It stimulates our imaginations and leads us down paths we might not have followed. Often people who are very fact oriented look down at fiction because it is not filled with verifiable facts. Of course, various types of fiction contain different amounts of fact and imagination. This stimulation of the imagination is good, however, and helps us imagine things that do not now exist, and perhaps work toward building such a world.

Pursuing diverse experiences builds diverse and flexible people. In this process reading serves more than one purpose. It can increase the diversity of the experiences we have sampled. It can also increase the ease with which we can check those hard facts.

This doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. It’s not ebooks vs print books or audiobooks vs those with text, or fiction presented in print vs fiction presented on a screen, small or large. Rather, it is a richness in the learning and growing experiences that are available. And yes, the entertaining experiences as well.

The ancient Mesopotamian people wrote on clay tablets. They wrote receipts for things they bought and sold, contracts for various activities, and laws for their society. But they also wrote myths, fundamental stories that helped them convey who they were and who they wanted to be.

We live in a world with a wide variety of wonderful experiences available. We can manage all that the ancients did, and also experience those myths, our fundamental stories, through multiple types of media. Let’s open our minds to more, without abandoning options that have existed for a long time.