reading effects Archives

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The Silent Book Club Boom

Back in 2016, I posted an article about Silent Reading Parties. No thanks to me, I’m sure, this idea has caught on in a big way. Healthline, as part of a feature on the social and cognitive benefits of reading, highlighted Silent Book Club, an organization that now has 1400 chapters and counting worldwide.

The idea is simple and genius. Get a group of friends together, everyone bring your own book in whatever format you wish (with headphones for audiobooks). Here’s how many break down the time:

30 minutes–people arrive, order drinks/food, share what they’re reading
60 minutes–quiet reading
30 minutes–optional socializing, or just keep reading

Groups can adjust the times to fit their needs. Most meet monthly.

It looks like a number of these are hosted by bookstores, often offering discounts on books people buy during these gatherings. Makes sense.

What also makes sense is the idea of reading in companionable silence without having your reading choices determined by a club. And its always fun to talk books with other bookworms. For those who don’t like book clubs but like to talk about books with others, this might be something to try. The Silent Book Club website includes a map to help you find a group near you as well as help starting a group of your own.

Five Articles Worth Reading

You don’t have to tell most readers the benefits of reading. But if you want to encourage others to take up the habit, “How Reading Can Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety” discusses the mental health benefits of reading.

Poetry and prayer have a connection going back to Israel’s Psalms and other Ancient Near East Literature. Ed Simon explores the close connection of prayer and poetry throughout literature in “Prayer is Poetry.”

Friends who have seen the Book of Kells describe it as one of the most beautiful books in the world. Plus, it is housed in the incredible Trinity College Library in Dublin. Open Culture offers a great introduction to this illuminated manuscript, including a six-plus minute video at “An Introduction to the Astonishing Book of Kells, the Iconic Illuminated Manuscript.”

From ancient manuscripts to this year’s books. NPR just posted its “Books We Love” feature for 2024 with 350 picks from their staff. In addition, you can access their choices going back to 2013!

Whether you like Taylor Swift or not, she has revolutionized the music industry, including re-recording much of her work, enhanced the fan base of the Kansas City Chiefs, and recently concluded her Eras tour, breaking concert attendance, gross income, and other records. Now, in publishing her own book on the tour, she’s changing the way some celebrities relate to publishers. The Atlantic has the story in “Taylor Swift Is a Perfect Example of How Publishing Is Changing.”

Quote of the Week

“Variety’s the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.”

This is one of those axioms that is part of our collective store of wisdom. But who said it? English poet and hymn writer William Cowper, who was born November 25, 1731.

Miscellaneous Musings

I was thrilled to learn today that a recording by two of my favorite artists is coming out this weekend. Phil Keaggy is an incredible guitarist from my hometown of Youngstown. Malcolm Guite is a contemporary poet, priest, and scholar with a marvelous English accent. They have combined talents with Guite reciting poetry and Keaggy providing guitar accompaniment in “Strings and Sonnets.” I wish I could recite poetry like Guite does!

Speaking of poetry, I’ve been reading Dana Gioia’s Meet Me At the Lighthouse. “Tinsel, Frankincense, and Fir” reminds me of the “ghosts” behind some of the ornaments we hang. I have to admit to finding things I like about Gioia’s work and ways I connect every time I read him!

Just finished Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, this year’s Booker Prize winner. While I think I’ve read better fiction in 2024, Harvey does capture something I’ve heard about before–seeing our planet from space is transformative–both its beauty and precarity. There is NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) footage online that gives some sense of what the fictional International Space Station astronauts and cosmonauts experience in Harvey’s work.

Next Week’s Reviews

Here’s what I expect to be reviewing next week:

Monday will be my monthly “Month in Reviews” post recapping my November reviews.

Tuesday: Agatha Christie’s One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Wednesday: Samantha Harvey’s Orbital

Thursday: Dana Gioia, Meet Me At the Lighthouse

Friday: Mike Cosper, The Church in Dark Times

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 17-23, 2024!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

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I came across a Ted Talk yesterday that asked the question, “What’s the Use of Reading?” The speaker, Beth Ann Fennelly, proposed that research demonstrates that reading fosters empathy in the reader, and some fascinating MRI research showing how most of our brains light up whe we read–perhaps a good argument for staying mentally sharp.

I didn’t think this was the only benefit to reading. So I asked my friends at Bob on Books “What effect do you think reading has on the kind of person you are?” Now this is not scientific and is self-reporting but I was impressed with the variety of ways reading affects the dedicated readers on this page.

There is a quote among the bookish that “I read so I know things.” Knowledge, understanding, perspective, discernment, and wisdom came up quite a bit. Often we read because we are curious, and aware of our ignorance in some area we would like to better understand.

Reading offers the chance to be an independent thinker. This requires that we don’t passively absorb what we read but engage and even argue with it. It means we read different points of view, and use it to test our own way of thinking.

Reading can widen our worlds. It takes us to places, introduces us to different peoples, and even other parts of the universe, from the microscopic to the ultra-distant. It helps us see that there is more than one way to see the world or solve a problem.

Reading fosters imagination. We hear the voices of people speaking, envision the scenes, taste the tastes, and smell the smells according to the brain research. We imagine ourselves in situations and how we would act. Sometimes this leads us to imagine how we will act in real life. Sometimes, that imagination leads to out of the box solutions to real life problems.

Reading relaxes us and even helps us sleep (unless what we are reading is so riveting that it keeps us awake!). Reading allows us a respite from the thoughts and concerns of daily life, a chance to set them aside. I think of that not as escape, but rather hitting “pause.” Sometimes those pauses allow us to return with greater freshness to the challenges of daily life.

One reader made the observation that you could turn this around and consider how the kind of person we are shapes our reading life. Is it because we are curious, independent minded, empathetic, and imaginative, that we read? My hunch is that it goes both ways. I also suspect that many of us began reading because someone we admired was a reader and imparted their love of books to us.

Does reading make us better people? It may, or may not. Some might be shaped by what we read and whether this sustains “the better angels of our nature” or encourages us to embrace the darkness. We might devote ourselves to the best that is thought and written, or to tawdry page-turners that no one will want in ten years. Our reading choices no doubt reflect the bent of our character, but also will tend to reinforce our tendencies for good or ill.

One last remark on the effects of reading. Most of us tend not to take kindly to being interrupted in our reading. It makes us cranky!