When we learn to read we don’t, in contrast to any number of math skills, grumble, “When will I ever use this is real life?” The inability to read must be a serious handicap for any adult in any mildly advanced culture. That doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t make better use of that skill set. Here are five benefits one receives when reading well chosen books.
1. An education. The very core of learning comes from receiving wisdom from those who have gone before. Reading opens up centuries full of such wisdom. Of course we can read blog pieces, magazine articles, cereal boxes, but books are written by those who think they have something important enough to offer that it takes some time to take it in. The right books live up to that belief. Want to understand better limited atonement? John Owen is there to help. Want to understand the trajectory of evangelicalism? Ian Murray is there to help. Want a better grasp of the modern west? Paul Johnson is there to help.
2. Better communication skills. We all not only learn things but at some level wish to teach things. That requires communicating well what we have learned. When we read the right books we not only are in a position to study the skills of others but to subsume them. Communicating with effective communicators makes of us better communicators. Want to hold your friends’ attention while sharing a bit of wisdom? GK Chesterton is your guy. Want to learn the pacing of a good story? What ho but Mr. Wodehouse has the goods old bean. Want to share with your family the extraordinary in the ordinary? Reading Professor Lewis will fill your sails.
3. A better pace for your own thinking and doing. Reading a book takes time. It’s not something you do between checking social media, or at a stoplight. It requires commitment, but rewards it as well. Keep in mind, the excuse, “I’d love to read more books but I just don’t have the time” is rightly translated, “I don’t like reading books more than I like the other stuff I do with my time.”
4. Deeply related to the above, reading books provides deep and rewarding pleasure. Not only is there nothing wrong with reading for pleasure, there’s something wrong with not reading for pleasure. Someone who thinks their ideas are too important to be communicated in an engaging way should share their ideas with someone who values them enough to share them in an engaging way. Anything worth learning is worth learning in a pleasing way. Learning, however, need not be your sole objective. You need not feel guilty for reading books that are not in the canon. Arthur Conan Doyle is no Joyce, but is a much better read. John Grisham isn’t Faulkner but is a much better read.
5. A better capacity to understand the Bible. The Bible as a whole is a storybook, a true storybook, complete with all the elements, arcs, foreshadowings, motifs and characters that make up story. To understand it, an understanding of the elements of story comes in handy. And comes from reading stories.
There are many books far superior to my own. But mine, I think, wouldn’t be a bad place to start. You can read about some and link to them here.