Shout Out to Readers

As an avid reader, I find reading on a regular basis how fewer people these days are reading to be a constant source of irony. Besides the information that such pieces impart, is the purpose of these articles to remind those of us who do read that we belong to a club whose membership continues to dwindle? Or is it to motivate us to put down our books and go out and recruit more folks to read? Perhaps it is both. I am not sure. But what I do know is that I, for one, am not inclined to try and talk others into taking on an activity that they know brings benefit to their lives and helps expand their minds.    

People are free to make their own choices. Even now, for instance, lots of men and women regularly smoke cigarettes even though they know doing so will in all likelihood be fatal. Am I inclined to get them to make a different choice? Not really. Does that make me uncaring? I do not think so. We all make choices - good and bad - and have to live with them. I also believe climate change is real and that actively supporting politicians who constantly lie is as dumb as dumb can be.Yet there are those who disagree and to them I say, "Good luck with that." But I digress from my point about reading - an important form of communication.

Recently, a writer for "Literary Hub" named Emily Temple calculated that average readers read one book per month; voracious readers read 50 books per year; and super readers read 80 books per year. So, using those numbers, if a person is 30 years of age and is a voracious reader, should they live to be 80 years of age, in all likelihood they will have read over 2,500 books during that half century. That, my friends, is a lot of books. Upon first glance, that may seem unrealistic. But the fact is it is not. I applaud those who are working their way to such a milestone and the choice they make every time they pick up a book. You are the better for it and so, too, is the world around you.