Here are seven reasons to stop making excuses and start reading (something) today:
1. Reading introduces you to new ideas. Fiction and non-fiction both transmit a worldview and address ideas. Every book in existence is about ideas. Some are lovely, and some are violently evil. But you will never know them if you do not read.
2. Reading introduces you to new friends. Whether it's the author or characters, there is a unique parasocial bond that is created through books. You feel like you know these people, like the imaginary ones exist and like the real ones are now your friends. What joy can be found in reading about people you care for.
3. Books make you smarter than television. Books are not easier than television. You need to think to read, need to stretch your mind and invigorate those brain cells. Movies are so much more easily accessible. You can just "turn off your mind." But is that what we really want? Is that making us more intelligent beings? Sure, television in moderation is okay (if you're watching the right stuff), but are you sacrificing reading for it?
4. Books just make you smarter. In general, books increase your intelligence. They expand your vocabulary, invite you to understand new concepts, shift your paradigms, allow you to become a generally more well-educated individual.
5. Reading makes you a more critical thinker. If you read, you will inevitably come up against beliefs that you disagree with. Engage with that conflict. Think more deeply about what you believe and why you believe it. Analyze reasoning.
6. Reading makes you feel things. Emotions are not inherently bad. Feeling grief, feeling joy, feeling humor or delight through books is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a wondrous side effect of being invested in literature.
7. Reading makes you a better Christian. Even if you're not reading the Bible, you are applying your Christian worldview - your beliefs in depravity and redemption and restoration - to what you read. You are reading books that make you a more thoughtful individual, a more mindful person of the world God has created.
Photo Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons and Martin.