Reading Still Matters

When I started writing this blog article I had to stop myself right away. My initial title was "Why Reading is Important", but what I really wanted to write this post about is why reading Books is important.  There are lots of other things we read that aren't books, like adds in the subway, social media posts, news articles written at the grade 6 level.  And I am not saying that you shouldn't read these types of media or that there is no value there. There is no escaping that kind of reading, and I hope there is some value here for readers of this post.  That said, reading books is a different kettle of fish than reading a blog post written by some random guy on the internet.  Let me give you three good reasons why reading books is as important now as it has ever been.  The Need to Disconnect As society becomes more connected through non-traditional and electronic means, whether AI driven data streams, digital signboards, social media apps, computers, screens, ...

I finally read a Cormac McCarthy novel. I was at the library looking for books with my 14 year old daughter, primarily books for her.  The library is one of the main theatres of battle in my ongoing military campaign to keep her from spending all of her time on screens.  Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Patton?  They have no idea.  Anyway, I have always seen book readers discuss and recommend Cormac McCarthy novels and The Road was on the shelf, which surprised me somewhat. Our small branch library usually has few good books, since most people generally rely on holds to get what they want. So, I grabbed the copy for myself.  Since this was my first (and so far only) McCarthy read, I was surprised how short the book was and how sparse was the writing style. I really had no expectations going into this, and I generally start with the assumption that I am getting into the next War and Peace.  But The Road is nothing like that at all. I struggled with the minimal...