Why I Started Reading

It's 2012. I just got married, and we moved to the cheapest apartment we could find within a reasonable distance. We're still pretty close to my parents, which means we can mooch a lot from them. I have a laptop, but no wifi. Cell phones are not yet ubiquitously data-enabled, and those that are have super expensive plans. A good friend gave me a first generation Kindle Fire.

It's hilarious how six years ago can sound so different already, but I found myself in a situation where TV was not an option. I was super busy - working two jobs - and my wife worked a lot too. We didn't make much because we were babies (and sorta still are) with low income jobs. So we didn't shell out for cable or for wifi; I had my parents' house just five or ten minutes away and we could go over there if we really wanted to catch something on TV. 

My jobs were waiting tables and leading a youth group at our church. They both took lots of emotional energy and lots of connecting with people I had never met before. I was 19, constantly in situations with people who were years older than me. I wanted to be smart. I wanted to find a way to have connections with people but felt extraordinarily uninteresting. I wanted to be worthy of genuine, open conversation. I wanted to prove that I had more to give than I needed to take. 

Anyway, that's when I started reading. Throughout High School I was sorta not into it. I loved writing - I've always loved talking in whatever format possible - and my English teachers generally had kind things to say about my work. My math teachers usually thought I talked too much...probably because their class was BORING. 

The one thing I had read in High School was Harry Potter - which I read through twice, because I didn't know how to choose a new book. So I couldn't start with Harry Potter, even though that was a great cultural touchstone at the time. 

My favorite movies, however, were The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I watched the extended editions with special features constantly (we did have a DVD player and an old TV). So I read LOTR. I started with The Hobbit because I'm a completionist. 

Then I read The Hunger Games (meh). I read Three Men In A Boat because someone on the internet told me it was funny. I didn't think it was, but I found Pride and Prejudice perfectly smirky. Narnia? Pretty great. I was on a solid diet of "oh, that movie has a book?" 

Then I got a little more serious. The Call of the Wild. LOVED IT. The Three Musketeers. Eh...it was fine. Ender's Game. HECK YES. Anna Karenina. Had some scenes I'll never forget. Had some characters I'll never remember. 

Animal Farm taught me what I think is the perfect length for a think-piece, which Franny and Zooey confirmed years later. The Lowland taught me that I want a story to have a point to it. Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle taught me I was wrong about that need for a point, and that meaningless stories can mean quite a bit.

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold and 1984 taught me how surprises in a made-up story can change how you think in real life. 

I went to college somewhere in that first year or maybe two years of reading. I started reading theology textbooks and tomes with titles like, "Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament." Those books were good too, and taught me their own lessons, but I don't think I learned nearly as much as I did from the novels (and biographies). 

I was saved by stories. They were more challenging to engage; more rewarding to mine. I have young kids now. They keep me busy, but I still love reading. 

I understand the author's motives a lot more easily these days, which makes it harder to jump into a book without trying to know the ending based on the author's desired outcomes. I'm forever more interested in a book that surprises me. 

Right now, I'm reading Authors of Color (click here to see which authors and books I'm reading). I hope it teaches me that there's lots of stuff I don't know, and what manner of stuff that is. 

What kind of stuff made you want to read? What kind of stuff makes you want to write? 

Tell people about that. There should be more talk about staring at words instead of screens.