Why We Read

One my favorite lines in Shadowlands, a movie about C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham, is: "We read to know we are not alone."

I'm a writer who loves to read. What I have learned from other people's writing cannot be measured.Their research and insight have enabled me to answer questions, relax or understand more about something that interests me.

A great day is one where I can sit in a comfy chair with a blanket over my lap, a cup of coffee or tea by my side, and what I call a real book in my hands - the kind with printed pages, maybe some illustrations and sometimes, if it is an old book, a certain smell. Those days are luxurious.

In the last few years, some brick and mortar bookstores have disappeared. This has largely been due to the change in the publishing industry. With electronic readers, laptops and phones that connect to the internet, the business of publishing newspapers, magazines and books will never be the same.

Happily, people are reading more - not less - because of these changes. Although I prefer reading a book in print, I travel so much that I seldom carry heavy books with me. Even though I don't have a reader, I download free classics on my laptop and take a library with me. Something to read is always available. 

While reading someone else's writing, I get ideas for my own articles, devotionals or books. If I didn't want someone else to read what I was writing, I would simply keep a private journal, like I used to do. Occasionally, someone will give me feedback about something I wrote and I know that I have connected with my reader. That is gratifying because I write to let others know they are not alone.

It was so important to God we know His love is real that He sent His Son, His living Word, to make that connection between Him and us. His inspired Word, the Bible, lets us know we are not alone. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God....And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-2, 14 NAS).