A few thoughts on reading via Dr. Bob
20 February 2008
Photo by Christopher Chan
"The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I [haven't] read."
–Abraham Lincoln
My friend Bob Lowery has posted some thoughts (with more to come) on his reading habits this week. Here’s a quick summary:
- Bob reads a book a week
- Bob reads in areas related to his discipline (New Testament studies)
- Bob reads in a lot of other areas
- Bob reads academic, biblical, fiction, and non-fiction books
I read a lot as well though not always books. I read magazines (mostly FastCompany and the former Business 2.0, which was shuttered by its parent company last fall) and a lot of blogs.
A lot of blogs.
More on that later.
But Bob reminds me that books are the foundation of a healthy diet for learning. Like Bob, I read in areas related to my teaching disciplines (communication, presenting, finance) and in other areas of interest–marketing, photography, technology, parenting, poetry, literature… Like Bob, I’ll read just about anything that’s put in front of me (sometimes this is a bad habit–like looking for some mail or a magazine during family meal times…). In short, I read because I love to learn.
My children love books for the same reason. My five-year-old son in particular loves nonfiction books–cars, construction, weather–anything. One of his favorite books is a Reader’s Digest home repair manual. The binding is broken and the pages are falling out because he’s spent so much time with it. He loves to learn, as do his sisters, so he reads.
Sadly, however, this appears to be true for only a minority of young people.
If you’re not reading and learning, you’re not growing. In the information age, those who aren’t reading and learning will be surpassed by those who are. But, really, with all of the benefits reading brings–good jobs, more intelligent conversation, a hot wife–why wouldn’t you read?
“The poorest Americans who read did twice as much volunteering and charity work as the richest who did not read,” Gioia said. “The habit of regular reading awakens something inside a person that makes him or her take their own life more seriously and at the same time develops the sense that other people’s lives are real.”
Very interesting…
I’m always tempted to throw out my TV and this article just re-awakened that. I’ve always loved to read but, far too often, I take the ‘easier’ route of being spoon-fed entertainment.
I’m happy to see this new blog of yours. I now have yet one more to add to my “how-did-I-ever-live-without-this” Google Reader. –And, now that I think about it, I believe a link you provided on facebook sparked me to investigate the Reader in the first place. Whadya know?
Thanks!
And so you remain a true student, Natalie, a life-long learner–outstanding!
On TV: as a Lenten exercise, I’ve eliminated wasteful TV watching in the evenings. Which pretty much means that I’m not watching TV at all right now (besides Family Movie Night or an occasional, intentional DVD). This has opened up quite a bit of time for reading–shocking.