Books? Who Need them?
Yesterday I read an alarming statistic. According to this article on the MSNBC website, a one in four adults in the US admit to not having read a single book in the past twelve months. Can you imagine that? (I’d bet my left arm that three in four of these same adults watch television for more than an three hours on a daily basis.) I read this article and thought, what-a-waste.
Is anyone else shocked by this? Maybe shocked isn’t the right word. My reaction is more of sadness than anything else. And it reminds me of an earlier time in my life when I would have been included in the numbers reflected by this poll.
I was about working in retail at the time. I was about twenty years old at the time. My supervisor wasn’t a college graduate and yet he had an amazing vocabulary. I asked him about it once. He must have thought I was sucking up to him for better hours, but I was intrigued and I just asked him about how he developed such a vocab? I still recall his response.
“I read - books, magazines, newspapers, anything I can really. If you want to build your vocabulary, my advice is to read.”
Tim’s advice was spot-on. And I’ve never forgotten it or him. I started reading that very day and have never regretted it. There was time when I spent at least $150 each month on books alone. Books became a source of cerebral nutrition.
I now read business books, novels, biographies, travel books, some magazines, and a lot of online news. I estimate that since my discussion with Tim - some 30 years ago now- I’ve read my way through approximately three-thousand books. Over the years, there were times when I often read four books a month.
I recall being asked by a friend in medical school why I always had a novel with me. I told him that at the end of the day (and at several times throughout the day) my brain needed something more than biochemistry and pharmacology: Reading keeps me sane. And it isn’t a matter of age or education; I know a 6th grade student who read three million words last year alone.
Reading is like exercise. The more you read, the more you want to read. You feel good afterwards. You have something new to think about and discuss with friends. You are more of the person you want to become. Having written books on copywriting, business, medicine, and marketing, I know first-hand that none of them would ever have been written it weren’t for Tim’s advice.
How about you? If you’re reading this blog, chances are pretty high that you are also a book reader. What do you read and how much per year do you think you read?
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