THE IMPORTANCE OF READING

Recently, I commented that I’m a much poorer man because I never allowed myself to read certain books because I didn’t want to. Reading, not just as a writer, is vitally essential to get by in this world, and here’s why.

When I teach, I almost always say that the book is a form of Virtual Reality. A book allows you to enter into a world that may or may not exist. It allows you to enter into the life and the mind of whoever is living in that world. Sometimes, all you get is a good story. Other times you have your little world shaken, your beliefs challenged, and if you’re lucky, you learned something about yourself and this world along the way. A book is an excellent way to change a world and being exposed to ideas you never considered.

And speaking of changing worlds, if you can read, you can change your world. I’ve gone through a lot of careers in my time. I’ve held jobs that initially I didn’t know how to do. A good example is my day job. I’m a Systems Administrator in charge of some pretty complex environments. When I first started in IT, I could barely spell the word “Server.” But because I can read, I soon launched myself into a career in a very complicated field. I’ve never spent a single day in school learning anything I know about the IT field. All of it has been reading, asking questions, and researching the answers.

In short, reading and lots of it!

We have a twenty cent term for what I did there. It’s called “reinventing yourself.”

Knowledge is power, and in my case, knowledge came from a book. 

If you want to change your world, read.