“I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”
This quote is by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who lived in the 1800s.
Emerson’s quote caught my attention because of his choice of words that books have made him. It’s a unique and effective way of underscoring the importance of reading books and also of choosing which books we read. For what we read does become a part of who we are—a part of our lived experience.
For many of us, it can be a challenge to find time to read because of being busy with other responsibilities and priorities. This can be especially true for working parents who want to spend time with their children when the family is all together, something which is very important for their children as well as for the parents. It’s also true for the many adults who need to have more than one job in order to earn enough money to pay for basic expenses.
When Emerson wrote the words I’ve quoted, there were far fewer options for ways to spend free time than there are today. The arrival of television in homes in the late 1940s and early 1950s and more and more people getting into the pattern of watching it took away from reading time. And for a number of years now PCs, laptops, smart phones, and other electronic devices have made viewing many types of content and playing games readily available, activities that have also decreased or replaced reading books. Studies have shown that the percentage of the population who read books for enjoyment has noticeably decreased and continues to decrease.
I’m not suggesting that the technological advances that have made much available to us should not be part of how we spend our time. I do believe (as do many others), however, that it’s important for our well-being to add reading to what we do. For, depending on what we read, it can add much to how we view our world, it can strengthen our ability to be empathic toward and accepting of others, it can increase our knowledge about past and recent events from which we can learn, and in many other ways reading adds in valuable ways to our lives. Even reading just a couple pages a day can make a difference. And for those who have children, reading to them benefits both the children and the parents and can be a special time of togetherness.
I encourage everyone who is not already doing so to add reading books to what you do. And to experience the many benefits that reading makes possible.