I thought the affirmative answer to that question was both obvious and credible. Until I read some of the irrelevant and stupid responses to Dan Hurley’s recent article in the Guardian in which he discusses the impact of reading on all three categories of intelligence . The nonsense helped me understand why so many distrust science, think climate change is fabricated, believe the world was created 6,000 years ago and despise high intelligence.
The research
Still, for the rest of us the research is immensely credible. And there’s a lot of it. One major group of studies emphasizes the “Matthew Effect” in academic achievement. The term is taken from the biblical passage that describes the rich-get-richer and the poor-get-poorer phenomenon. Children who experience greater difficulty reading, get less practice, read less, and delay their own development—and may never develop anywhere near their actual ability...
Still other research compares the impact of reading different kinds of material to television and speech. Most speech is actually impoverished when compared to written language. It’s easy to show that sensitivity to the subtleties of language are crucial to some undertakings and careers. A person who does not clearly see the difference between an expression of intention and a promise or between a mistake and an accident, or between a falsehood and a lie, should avoid a legal career.
And other research focuses upon reading volume, finding that avid readers—regardless of their general abilities—have more knowledge relevant to living today. Studies also dissected misinformation and misconceptions in numerous domains, finding that they’re driven largely by too little exposure to print or reading. It warms my heart to learn that although the tube can have positive associations with knowledge development, it’s confined to public television, news and/or documentary. “Familiarity with the prime time television material that defines mass viewing in North America is most often negatively associated with knowledge acquisition."
In sum, if you think that reading and academic achievement have no relation to career achievement, then you need to look at the background of the Silicon Valley folk, the employees at Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Or, professionals like physicians, scientists, economists, lawyers and architects. A surprising number of highly successful senior executives also read.
Literary fiction
What, uniquely, can you learn from reading, especially in the fields of literary fiction? Although the categories are seemingly endless, they tend to be strategic. In reading literary fiction you’d find such things as strategies for selecting friends and allies, for dealing with loss, for becoming whole (again), for warding off evil experiences, for atoning for wrong-doing and even for making yourself less religiously self-righteous. You’ll find a much greater sense of the forms like “tragedy” or “comedy” or “satire” or “fairy tale.”
Take tragedy as an example. In today’s world tragedy gets a lot of billing with families missing children, losing sons and daughters in our wars, and taken in childhood. But much tragedy in our lives won’t make headlines. And without better ways of understanding that loss, which can be found in reading, many stumble on only partially alive. Families dissolve from tragedy and dysfunction, but literature can help us in ways unimaginable for nonreaders.
Comedy is that ability to succeed by one’s own wit, wisdom and strength—especially in the face of adversity. Stories use that motif from an endless number of perspectives, providing both thought material and relevant application to our human settings.
Satire, that use of humor, exaggeration or ridicule to expose people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics, can be very insightful and liberating. Garrison Keeler’s works come to mind, but of course, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a masterpiece.
Americans love fairy tale, that sense that someone will always rescue them from their plight. In today’s world, I often think of fairy tale from the perspective of luck. Luck is typically earned and created. You don’t just stumble into it, but you’re prepared for it when the opportunity comes. That’s great fairy tale and highly applicable to life and career.
Insights from the authors
Great books become classic because they have so much that is eternally relevant. I dug around in both the past and present, searching merely for insightful quotes from authors and books I have loved. Here’s a sample.
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina: All happy families are alike: each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Anne Patchett, Bel Canto: It makes you wonder. All the brilliant things we might have done with our lives if only we suspected we knew how. And in State of Wonder: Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.
Jonathan Franzen, Freedom: Nice people don’t necessarily fall in love with nice people.
William Faulkner, Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. And in Requiem for a Nun: The past is never dead. It's not even past.
Saul Bellow, Herzog: Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms: All thinking men are atheists. This exchange is especially intriguing for lovers: "Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again."
"Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?"
"Yes. I want to ruin you."
"Good," I said. "That's what I want too.”
In an aside, Hemingway made a comment that I keep at my computer. There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens: He’s poor. And that’s revenge enough.
Great literature, more than any other experience, equips us for living fuller lives.