In Praise of Reading

"Among the many worlds which man did not receive as a gift of nature, but which he created with his own spirit, the world of books is the greatest." (Hermann Hesse)

Since my childhood, I have spent countless hours of my life reading books. I always enjoyed doing it, just as there are people who don't read and claim they just never much enjoyed it. Somehow I always had a feeling that it is important for me to read, yet I never spent a lot of time thinking about the 'why'. Even now, I feel slightly reluctant to argue for the importance of reading books based on the benefits it offers. For me, reading is an end in itself - it is autotelic. But of course, this is no reason to ignore the facts about reading and how this activity (or its lack) impacts our lives and even our society.

Maryanne Wolf starts her wonderful book 'Reader, Come Home' by taking a close look at what happens in the brain while we read. With her background in cognitive neuroscience, and years of studying developmental psycholinguistics, she is able to give a very detailed account of the multiple, simultaneously happening operations in the brain that occur every time we read even a single word. It is a complex interplay between the brain areas for vision, language, cognition, motor and affect. While this part of the book is rather technical, it definitely managed to inspire a sense of awe at the intricacy of the brain.

The most important thing to note at this point, is that reading is in fact an unnatural, cultural invention that is only about 6000 years old: "A large, fundamental mistake—with many unfortunate consequences for children, teachers, and parents around the world—is the assumption that reading is natural to human beings and that it will simply emerge 'whole cloth' like language when the child is ready." This is not the case! Reading can develop epigenetically based on the brain's biologically endowed functions of vision and language and because of brain plasticity. As brain plasticity peaks during early childhood, it is important that children learn reading at that age. One of the most important predictors of later reading achievement is how much parents read to their child, and according to Wolf, a parent cannot possibly start too early with this.

The sad reality is that, apparently this is happening less and less. According to recent statistics, reading books has been in stark decline for the past 20 years: In the U.S., leisure reading has decreased by an average of 3% per year.
Especially among children and young adults (but not only), we can currently observe a parasitic takeover of other forms of media, with short-form videos as the most prevalent of them. Is this really so problematic? After all, short-form videos might just be a new medium, just as books were at some point in history too. This is not the case, and Wolf explains the differences lucidly in this book.

Short-form videos encourage what cognitive researches have called hyper attention. Daniel Levitin describes that this state "creates a dopamine-addiction feedback loop, effectively rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external stimulation." The more the brain gets used to this state, the harder it is to reach the opposite state: deep attention - a state of concentration on a single object for extended periods. Closely related is the concept of deep reading developed by Wolf in her research.
This type of reading is not superficial, but includes slower cognitive processes such as critical thinking, personal reflection and imagination. Another aspect of it is empathy: "when we read fiction, the brain actively simulates the consciousness of another person, including those whom we would never otherwise even imagine knowing. It allows us to try on, for a few moments, what it truly means to be another person, with all the similar and sometimes vastly different emotions and struggles that govern others’ lives." Deep reading also allows the reader to build up a reservoir of background knowledge, which is the basis for his ability to comprehend new ideas and concepts.
Almost none of these processes are possible in the state of hyper attention. We are also not just talking about the information itself that is contained in the content: reading a book exercises the mind in a way that consuming summaries of the information contained in the book does not. While reading, the reader follows the author's chain of thought and in a sense thinks with him or her. To follow an argument in a book, it is often necessary to keep multiple ideas which are built on one another in the working memory, which effectively trains the brain to focus for extended periods of time.

While reading this book I finally understood clearer than ever: Reading is important because it is so closely linked to thinking. The time a brain spends in a deep reading state is reflected in the quality and the clarity of its thinking.
This is why reading is more than a hobby or a preference, it is vital for a truly democratic society: "If we in the twenty-first century are to preserve a vital collective conscience, we must ensure that all members of our society are able to read and think both deeply and well. We will fail as a society if we do not educate our children and reeducate all of our citizenry to the responsibility of each citizen to process information vigilantly, critically, and wisely across media. And we will fail as a society as surely as societies of the twentieth century if we do not recognize and acknowledge the capacity for reflective reasoning in those who disagree with us."