Those who do not read

[katya]

disclaimer: I might not know what I'm talking about.

Since I've been surrounded by college students for the past few years, I assumed everyone read. In college, it's more "cool" to be smart and "intellectual". I was shocked when I started subbing in high school and realize that almost no one reads for pleasure, and most of them don't read assigned school readings either.

I think reading books has a lot of positive effects, especially in terms of language skills. People who read books have better spelling and grammar, and writing skills in general. There are other, less obvious benefits also. For example, they learn about a lot of things- even in good fiction we are exposed to many ideas and facts about the world. Reading a book as opposed to web surfing is also very different in terms of how your brain works while doing either thing. People who spend a lot of time on the internet have shorter attention spans, and brains more similar to those of people with ADD (I'll see if I can find some source to back me up there, it's just hearsay for now so I'm not 100% on it.). So for example, reading updates on Facebook all day is NOT in any way shape or form the same as reading a book.

I think, though, that reading books is not necessarily the only way to become an intelligent, wise person who knows a lot about the world. One anecdotal example is my dad. He's not a big reader. He reads articles and some non-fiction, but not many books (fiction or non-fiction) at all. However, he knows a lot about a lot of things, and is more intelligent and sensible than a lot of readers I know.

It also depends on what you read. Reading romance novels and other strictly entertainment oriented novels won't benefit you as much as other things you could read. So it's not really reading that is important, but the desire for knowledge and wisdom. You can get it without reading, and you can miss it even if you read.

People who chose not to read, if anything, are at a DISadvantage compared to people who can't, for whatever reason. Because if you can't read but desire to read, or desire to learn, you can learn without reading. (That's not to say that applies to all illiterate or super-busy etc. people, of course.)

So, bottom line, the quest for knowledge is the important thing. Reading books is highly recommended (by me, who is not an expert in any way), but not the only way. I think real world experience is just as necessary- you can't spend all your time reading and expect to know about the world (the underground man just popped into my head). However reading is a good start, and has many unique benefits such as spelling/grammar/writing skill improvement.