The Reading Habit

I love to read. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve diversified the stuff I read (the Internet helped immensely). And I try and do what Charlie Munger says:

“(Just reading is) not enough: You have to have a temperament to grab ideas and do sensible things.  Most people don’t grab the right ideas or don’t know what to do with them.”

But how does one enthuse a kid to read? After all, most of their reading is the kind “forced” by the education system, on subjects they don’t always care about, in a style that, well, let’s just say it isn’t riveting.

Kevin Kelly wrote this passage trying to encourage kids to read. You decide whether he achieves its aim:

“Imagine you can choose your own superpower. You get to pick one of these three: flying, invisibility, or being able to read. Which one do you choose?”

Most kids would obviously pick the first two. Which is why Kelly writes next:

“Flying is not so useful without other superpowers; invisibility is okay for being naughty or for a little fun but not good for much else. But if you could read, especially if you were the only one who could read … you’d be the most powerful person on Earth. You would be able to tap into all the wisdom of the smartest people who ever lived on the planet.”

Even better:

“Not that you have to remember it all. Any time you want you can use your superpower of reading to find the exact information you need using the lookup method.”

And it isn’t always about knowledge either:

“Reading is a superpower that also gives you a type of teleportation. It can transport your mind to a different place (and/or time) than where your body is.”

To kids who feel we live in the Age of the Image, of Instagram and YouTube, Kelly has this very unpopular piece of wisdom:

“More and more of our society is centered on pictures and images, which is a beautiful thing. But some of the most important parts of life are not visible in pictures. Ideas, insights, logic, reason, mathematics, intelligence. These can’t be drawn, photographed, or pictured. They have to be conveyed in words, arranged in a orderly string, and can only be understood by those who have acquired the superpower of reading.”

While I loved his article, I am not sure if it would cut any ice with a kid who isn’t into reading already. Then again, one can only nudge and keep trying with kids…