TOP TEN TUESDAY | TEN REASONS I’M THANKFUL FOR BOOKS

Breaking down what exactly makes me so grateful for books is something I’ve always struggled with. Reading is just awesome. End of story. But I think part of the reason why it is so awesome is because there are so many ways in which it has improved my life. So I’m trying to tease out some of the specific things reading has done for me. This is what I’ve got so far:

Empathy. Studies have been done that show reading, particularly reading fiction, increases your ability to empathize with other human beings. I definitely think a life spent stepping out of my own shoes and into the diverse cast of characters as you find between the pages of books has made me appreciate difference and feel less threatened by it. I try, whenever I can, to look for the reasons why people behave as they do or think what they do. It’s far more interesting than knee-jerk reactions to what it is they’re saying or doing, and much more productive.

Escapism. We all need to escape. Life is hard, and in today’s world it’s more complex than ever. There are so many pressures and claims on our time and energy that from time to time it’s vital to step outside of it all for a little while. Books are a fantastic way to do that, and much more immersive than television or movies when you find a good one. And they have the added benefit of helping you unplug and calm your mind.

Diversity. As I mentioned in the the first item on this list, you can find anyone in a book if you know where to look. One of the things I’m most excited about in today’s literary landscape is that more own voices books are being sought out and published, and this allows for not only more diversity, but more accurate representation. Everyone should be able to find themselves in popular culture, and should see themselves portrayed accurately and with sensitivity. I am so happy my daughter is growing up at a time when no matter who she is, she will be able to find voices telling stories she can relate to. When I was a kid we didn’t have that. And I think we all suffered for it.

Appreciation of language. Good writing gets messages across better than bad. It’s that simple. When I find an idea I’ve been grappling with put down in succinct, eloquent phrasing, it is the most satisfying experience out there. I love coming across lines that leap off the page and need to be re-read immediately because they just speak such an essential truth. Or an image that I can actually see unfurling before my eyes as I read because the description is so perfectly rendered. Or a line that evokes such a strong emotion that I literally have to catch my breath. I know how hard it is to put words together in exactly the right order, and it’s something I place great value on.

Decoration. There are a lot of quotes about how a home without a library is like a body without a soul, or even telling us that if we go home with someone and they have no books not to sleep with them. Books are a vital part of a home for me. I don’t feel comfortable in a space that doesn’t include books as part of the decor. Not only do they provide a familiar visual background, but the books on display help me orient myself in relation to the person who has collected them. It tells me what their interests and priorities are, and whether I have anything in common with them.

Education. I have learned more from reading than any experience in my life, including university. And I continue to learn from them. A great example of this is  Q’s Legacy, Helene Hanff’s memoir about how she educated herself at her community library with the help of a text on literature that guided her to the books she would come to love. That is what is so amazing about books. They are (at least in my part of the world) available at a relatively low cost or free from the public library, and they provide us with a vast aggregate of collected cultural and historical knowledge. The richness of what we can gain from reading widely cannot be overstated. I tend to feel like I can learn most of what I need to know from books, and that a well-written book can pique my interest in pretty much anything.

History. The past is something we cannot normally access except through talking to people who were there. Which means we have access to a maximum of about ninety years. But books are a way that people in times gone by were able to record what they saw, felt, experienced and learned. It’s a way for us to carry on conversations begun generations before we even existed. Particularly given history’s proclivity for repetition, there is little more valuable than this.

Companionship and not feeling alone. I’ve talked a lot about how isolating motherhood is, as well as how hard it is to grapple with mental illness when you feel like it places a wall between you and everyone else around you. I often feel like I no longer know how to communicate with people who haven’t shared any of my experiences. They have changed and shaped me to such a degree that I find it awkward and difficult to engage in small talk with people who don’t know anything about me or what I’ve been through. Which further adds to my isolation. I find that reading books, particularly memoirs, by and about people who are dealing with similar issues helps me feel like there’s a tenuous thread of connection between me and other people. That then translates to feeling like maybe some of the people around me aren’t a totally unrelated species. It also helps me assimilate some of those experiences and move through them so that they are less of a barrier. I truly believe that without some of the books I’ve read in the past couple of years I wouldn’t be as far along my journey to dealing with my experiences as I am. Not that I don’t still have a very long way to go, but you have to take whatever progress you are able to make.

Vocabulary. I’ve spent my whole life looking up or asking people around me to define words I’ve only come across in books. A lot of my vocabulary has come from either piecing together meaning from context and usage or actively seeking out definition. And I think I have more interest in learning new words because I associate that with the act of reading, an act I’ve always found to be highly pleasurable.

Old favourites to return to. Books I’ve read are, as many have said before me, like old friends. So are the characters they contain. Opening the pages of a beloved book is like returning to a home left months or years earlier, one where I lived happily, and that is full of pleasant nostalgia. Returning to it, particularly when things in real life are hard, is an unequalled experience of comfort and relief. There are many books that feel this way to me, but probably the strongest and most frequently re-read on my shelves are, unoriginally, the Harry Potter books. Partly because it’s a whole series so I can stay there pretty much as long as I care to, but also because it’s brilliantly written, full of great plotlines, and has characters I feel deeply connected to. It has seen me through wonderful times and illness, through uncertainty and the early months of motherhood. Many of the biggest events in my life have been accompanied by a re-read of one or more of these books, and the audiobooks as read by Stephen Fry further establish the comfortable escapist power they hold.

Something to share. There are fewer joys in life greater than finding a fellow reader who loves the same books you do. Bonding over books is so much more satisfying than finding someone who likes the same movie or TV show or listens to the same music. Partly because books require a deeper level of investment and immersion, and partly because the books we love tend to be the ones that speak to us at the core of who we are as people, and therefore finding a shared love of one means something about a shared view of the world. I don’t have as many readers in my life as I would like, which I think is part of why this blog has lasted. I’m always looking for someone to share books with, and failing that, I’ll send my opinions out into the void in the hopes that someone out there somewhere finds a kindred spirit in a shared love of great books.

I’d really love to hear your reasons for being thankful for the books in your life. Do any of the items on my list particularly speak to you? Have I missed any? Please let me know what you think!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.