โI wish I read more.โ – Everyoneย
I spent the bulk of this past weekend reading through a recent bestseller. Despite being steeped in historical, artistic and architectural facts, it was not what would commonly be considered an enriching, thoughtful novel.
It was a vapid, blunt yarn. It was a shallow, derivative adventure story.
It was the latest Dan Brown novel,ย Origin.
This story, the fifth in Brownโs โRobert Langdonโ series, outsold every other hardcover in the past week, including multiple debuts. That means that thoughtful, creative, brand-new tomes released by esteemed historians like Walter Isaacson sold fewer copies this week on their release than an adventure novel that came out nearly a month ago, on Oct. 3.
We, as aย society, tend to associate books with intelligence. We connote the consumption of the written word with the value of being โsmarter,โย the same way that past generations have attributed deficient eyesight with the same feature.
Obviously, there are books that can make us smarter. We learn from textbooks and biographies about all sorts of things in our world. Books are multivalent sources of knowledge and entertainment, history and adventure.
But itโs the way that weย esteemย these things that raises questions. Theyโre bound bundles of words, yet we perceive them as essential, cultural vessels of brilliance. You carry a copy of James Joyceโsย Ulyssesย under your arm, and people will perceiveย in you a sort of intelligence โ or maybe just pretentiousness โย that has almost nothing to do with the ability to run your eyes across a page and consumeย words. In the modern world, reading is a mandatory skill that is programmed into children at very young ages.
Simplyย put, is non-fiction more valuable than fiction? Does it make you smarter?
โNo,โ Mandyย Brouse, one of the co-owners of Words Worth Books in Waterloo, said. โI think that reading itself is the extreme value.โ
โI guess thereโs many different types of intelligence, and thereโs definitely a lot of academic studies that have been done on reading and the benefits of readingย โย ranging anywhere from your traditional IQ testing to emotional intelligence and what that means,โย Brouseย continued.
โSo we do have academic studies that back those claims up. But I also think that, from my own experience, reading books growing up, and with my own academic background, I feel that reading is probably one of the bigger reasons why I am the person I am today,โ she stated.ย โI think reading is one of the most important activities I have in my life.โ
โThe most important books are the ones that are the exact right books to put inย peopleโsย hands, that they need at the time,โย she added.
While ploughing throughย Harry Potter & the Philosopherโs Stoneย isnโt likely to turn someone into a scholar, there are values that are associated with the simple practice of reading itself. And there are communities that grow out of the simple engagement with it, even with aspiring writers themselves.
I spoke with Vanessa Ricci-Thode,ย president of the Canadian Authorโs Association Waterloo-Wellington Branch. On top of this role, she is also the Municipal Liaison forย NaNoWriMoย in Kitchener-Waterloo, an international event where authorsย โย aspiring and acclaimedย โย attempt to write the first draft of an entire novel within the month of November.
As someone who has been heavily involved in working with and encouraging writers, Ricci-Thodeย had a bit of insight into theย importance of theย written word:
โStories are important,โ she said. โThey teach us about the world, they teach us about each other. Even fiction, thereโs a lot you can learn in fiction and I think thereโs a lot of value in it because of that.โ
โFiction specifically allows you to play with reality a little bit and get out stories that you wouldnโt normally hear. It gives you the chance to see through other peoplesโ eyes and to walk through otherย peopleโsย shoes. I think itโs really valuable to cultivate empathy.โ
This value relates deeply to something elseย Brouseย brought up: an organization she has become involved with launching in Waterlooย focusedย on the more therapeutic, healthful aspects of reading:
โShelf Life is a series of workshops that is on the topic of creativeย bibliotherapy,โย Brouseย said. โWhich is something that has only been active in and around Toronto and the UK. And itโs something that Iโm hoping to bring more into Waterloo.โ
โItโs essentially using books and readings from books in a way that facilitates a group therapy situationย โย but involving fiction and non-fiction. It touches upon a lot of the existential feelings that many people have,โย Brouseย added.ย โIt talks about the universalizing feelings of, say, grief or fear, anxiety; stuff weโve all experienced at one point in our lives.โ
This is done through workshops that have run in Waterloo at the Delton Glebe Counselling Centre, with the next scheduled for Nov.ย 6.
โThis particularย series that weโre in right now is on the topic of fear and the resiliency that can come about when we have experiences of fear in our lives,ย and the tools that we can useย โย and the tools coming from books, fiction, essays, non-fiction, poetry. That kind of that thing,โย Brouseย said.
โAndย [not just]ย what authors have to teach us about that, but also what each of us have to tell each other about those topics and how fear has impacted our individual livesย โย and how that might be universalized in a group therapy situation.โ
Whether or not intelligence is based on the amount that one person reads, a person can become smarter in one way or another by reading. In case that was your purpose in reading this article, I asked my interviewees specifically their recommended โsmarteningโ titles in fiction.
For Ricci-Thode, it was about imbibing an example and an understanding through characters and stories.
โFor me, I tend to readย โย in fictionย โย I read mostly science fiction and fantasy. And the book that I would recommend right now is calledย The Fifth Seasonย by N.K.ย Jemisin. Itโs a really smart book.โ
And what makes it smart?
โThe way it really explores human nature. Itโs an apocalyptic novel but itโs a very hopeful book and it just really gets into human nature, human psychologyย โย some of the ugly things that we do but some of the really beautiful things that people do as well.โ
When asked,ย Brouseย had a different kind of answer, reflecting on how the format can be used to convey theories and ideas more overtly amongst the stories themselves. Her pick wasย The Course of Loveย by Alain de Botton.
โHe is a philosopher. But he has gone into the foray of fiction here. And what it is, itโs a story that is fictionalizedย โย about a couple going through a breakup and trying to understand their marriageย โย butย [itโs]ย very practical; a lot of people would recognize a lot of aspects of themselves,โย Brouseย admitted.
โThen the narrator himself breaks in with some of these philosophical reflections on the nature of love and relationships,โ she said.
โNot in this pristine, objective, standoffish kind of wayย โย but in a real way with real insight. And so I thought it was a really good book at the time.โ
Books may or may not make us intelligent, but there are certainly productive factors associated with reading in the modern world.
With such an unavoidable interconnectedness in this world, and such synergy between technologies that actuallyย encourageย us to scroll through our Twitter feeds while we watch television, the ability to switch off and focus on one thing can help to improve our concentration and our patience.
Thereโs a reason why we all wish that we read more, and thatโs because we all strive to be better than we are by pouring ourย heartsย into pursuits that develop other, unexplored components of ourselves.
Where we lack in empathy, in understanding, in patience, we want to expand.
Intelligence is not simply understanding economics, or math, or the sciences. Intelligence is comprised of our rounded perceptions, our grasp of languageย โย every prescriptive component that we can apply to ourselves and our lives.
Just like a book, intelligence can be one of a thousand different things.
You may not become smarter by reading, especially by reading fiction. Butย โย putย simplyย โย you may become better.ย
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