The Power of Books and Reading

Many of the books and articles I read this summer emphasized the power of books and reading, and their influence in many people’s lives.  

• In The Wright Brothers, by David McCullough, he wrote that Wilbur Wright was injured as a teenager and, because of that, was not able to attend Yale as planned.  He stayed at home for three years and read.    His father, Bishop Wright, “a lifelong lover of books, heartily championed the limitless value of reading” (page 17).
• Scott Kelly wrote in Endurance that The Right Stuff, by Thomas Wolfe, changed the direction of his life.
• Many people involved in the space program such as Homer Hickam and Robert Goddard mentioned Jules Verne’s books From the Earth to the Moon and The War of the Worlds as an influence on their interest space exploration.
• Many successful women were inspired by the Nancy Drew series including Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg (“The Mystery of the Nancy Drew Pittsburgh Connection,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8-16-2019).

There are multiple reasons to read including pure pleasure, escape, knowledge, inspiration, comfort, and many more.  The benefits of reading include developing critical thinking skills, empathy, an extended attention span, as well as the previous list.   We often don’t know the influence something we read will have on our lives in the near or far future.  So – just keep reading!