The problem with reading
by Pat Williams with Peggy Matthews Rose
Television is addictive. Watch a youngster sometime when he or she is tuned in to a favorite show. Everything else is tuned out. Their eyes glaze over. They’re mesmerized!” Pat Williams with Peggy Matthew Rose, authors of Read for Your Life
In the summer of 2004, Newsweek ran an article that reported on recent findings of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). According to the article, reading in America is on the decline as people turn more and more to electronic forms of entertainment and communication. According to the NEA report, “... at the current rate of loss, literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century.”
I submit that if we allow ourselves to continue on this path, we risk losing that part of us that actively engages with the hearts and minds of others, reaches across time, and spans the generations – due to preoccupation.
Watching is not reading
Kids have long preferred “the movie version” when it comes to book reports. But today, many kids don’t even bother with the movie. They simply come home, turn on the TV, and zone out. I read not long ago that television literally has a mind-numbing effect. Hospital-conducted research has concluded that children distracted by TV are less aware of receiving shots. How can kids who spend afternoons and evenings watching TV grow up to become adults who actively engage in the world around them? It’s not going to happen.
President George W. Bush reminds us that, in order for future educational forecasts to change, we parents must pay closer attention to what our children are doing after school. “We cannot blame the schools alone for the dismal decline in SAT verbal scores,” he said. “When our kids come home from school, do they pick up a book, or do they sit glued to the tube, watching music videos? Parents, don’t make the mistake of thinking your kid only learns between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.”
I could not agree more. Television is addictive. Watch a youngster sometime when he or she is tuned in to a favorite show. Everything else is tuned out. Their eyes glaze over. They’re mesmerized! Television carries with it a mentality that says, “Entertain me. Make it easy for me.” Reading says, “Challenge me. Stimulate me. Push my mind. Make it work. Make me think.”
Books need to be first choice
Instead of wasting time on mindless pursuits or frantically striving to keep up with a world moving at warp speed, why not read a book – and learn something! Feed your mind. While you’re at it, make sure your kids see you making this wise choice.
Writer Charley Reese, formerly of the Orlando Sentinel, observed, “I feel sorry for people who grow up not liking to read, as apparently more and more young Americans are doing. They are inadvertently shortening ... their lives. Not physically, of course, but the life of a human is essentially the life of the mind. With good books, you can live several thousand years in the short physical span you have, and you can live a life far more rich in experience than all but the most heroic adventures. ... Nothing in my life was so fortuitous as falling in love with books at an early age.”
As a public speaker, I travel the country frequently. Everywhere I go, I talk about reading books. And without fail, I’m approached by people afterward – usually men, often executives, athletes, or busy professionals – who are convicted about their personal reading habits.
The Nazis were right in believing that one of the most powerful weapons in a war of ideas is books. And for better or worse, the United States is now in such a war. Without books, we cannot succeed in our current struggle against absolutism and terrorism.” Andrew Solomon, in a July 2004 New York Times editorial
Somehow, instinctively, we know we need to read. Why is that so? What is it in this message that resonates? Is it just because our mothers told us so? I’m grateful I had a mother who modeled reading for me as a child, but I believe it’s more than that.
It’s clear the need to communicate ideas has been around since mankind began to multiply on this Earth, and reading puts us in direct contact with those ideas. If you’ve ever sat in on a brainstorming session, you’ve experienced that electricity, that spark that leaps through a room when great minds come in contact. Imagine sitting in a room with a good book and having a brainstorming session – seemingly all by yourself! I’ve done it. People think you’ve lost it. Oh, if they only knew! Books do that. And books do so much more.
Reading is radical
Books have revolutionized our world. From the day Johannes Gutenberg rolled his first Bible off his brand-new printing press on Aug. 24, 1455, life changed. Books opened new worlds to people who’d never known reading before. Gutenberg’s Bible was so revolutionary, in fact, that it threatened the established church of its day. For centuries, church leaders had controlled what the masses believed. Finally, people could read God’s Word for themselves. Imagine it!
Writer Andrew Solomon responded to the NEA report in a New York Times op-ed (July 2004). He pointed to the dark era during World War II when Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels had books from the university burned in the plaza. They feared that ideas spurred by books could undermine armies. During the bleak years of Soviet domination, similar repression of literature occurred.
“The Nazis were right in believing that one of the most powerful weapons in a war of ideas is books,” Solomon wrote. “And for better or worse, the United States is now in such a war. Without books, we cannot succeed in our current struggle against absolutism and terrorism.”
Books offer ideas, thoughts, and knowledge that can spark action with a power to overcome even the most despicable evil. We need those ideas now more than ever.
What you and I can do about it
If winning this war against the decline of reading is to be achieved, each of us must play our part. Here are a few solid suggestions:
1. Be aware of how you spend your time. Is reading on your daily schedule? When you determine to make books a regular part of your life, every day, you’ll be surprised at the personal growth you’ll observe in just a few months. And you'll be setting a good example to others about the proper place of reading in our lives.
2. Remember that tomorrow is up to us. It takes a concerted effort to keep what matters from becoming lost over time. Reading matters. I cannot think of anything more tragic, more heartbreaking, than a world where no one reads.
3. Determine to be part of the solution where reading is concerned. When other people in your life see that reading matters to you, they’ll be inspired to follow your lead. Let people know that reading matters to you.
4. Keep yourself abreast of the facts. Read those NEA reports when they’re released and make sure you’re always involved in improving education in America, even if it’s just writing letters to the editor about your local school board.
5. Make sure you’re aware of trends, both good and bad. Don’t be guilty of walking through life with blinders on. Warning signs are just that – they warn us of impending danger. If we heed them, our chances of surviving the danger are good. But if we ignore them, we put ourselves and our posterity at risk. Reading is in trouble – do you admit that? Let’s look at what these danger signs mean, and think about how we can avoid the falling rocks and sharp curves ahead. And consider this urgent question: if we don’t work today to keep reading alive, how will God’s Word speak to future generations?
If you’d like to learn more about how your church can get involved in fighting illiteracy in your community and around the world, read about Saddleback Church’s P.E.A.C.E.
This article was adapted from the book Read for Your Life: 11 Ways to Transform Your Life with Books (Health Communications, Inc. 2007)
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Article by Pat Williams with Peggy Matthews Rose Pat Williams is senior vice president of the Orlando Magic NBA basketball team. A popular speaker and prolific author, he and his wife, Ruth, are parents to nineteen children (fourteen from international adoption). Pat and Ruth attend the First Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla., where Pat is a 20-year member. He teaches an adult Sunday school class there and Ruth volunteers in the nursery. Peggy Matthews Rose is a freelance writer who has worked with Pat Williams on various projects, including the book Read for Your Life. Peggy attends Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., where she volunteers with a curriculum-writing ministry. She is a frequent writer and editor for Rick’s Toolbox and other Purpose Driven communications vehicles.
