Why Read… At All?

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:01]If people stopped reading, would anything truly be lost?

[00:00:06]In our day and age, it seems less and less people are reading, particularly novels or long books that are challenging.

[00:00:13]And there's so many other sources of information. Reading is inefficient.

[00:00:18]It's slow. It requires long periods of attention, attentional focus on one sustained argument.

[00:00:26]Nowadays, we can get pretty much any information we need, often excellent information, very quickly, in bite-size form, consolidated so that we can digest it. So, why spend time reading long works, struggling through challenging concepts?

[00:00:44]Why do I read every day in a world where very few people seem to enjoy reading, seem to continue reading?

[00:00:50]It's an interesting question.

[00:00:52]I was just on a road trip and I spent, you know, almost 4 days on the road. And the vast majority of that time I spent listening to books, to audiobooks, to novels, primarily. A couple of non-fiction as well. Books that I'd been meaning to read for years and had been on my list and I really wanted to read.

[00:01:09]But why was it so important to me to read them?

[00:01:11]Why did Why did I feel the need to spend my time listening?

[00:01:15]Listening to books, important books.

[00:01:18]In between some of these books, I let my mind wander. I was looking at the scenery and these questions came to me. I I thought of them before, but it really hit me harder this time. Now that I'm making videos about books, I'm talking about books that impacted me, that I love reading, that have, you know, been meaningful and have challenged me, caused me to think different ways.

[00:01:39]Why do I read? Why is that for me the best way? And, you know, there's a lot of reasons. There's a lot of reasons I think that reading is valuable. First of all, it can transport you to a place in a way that no other medium, for a similar similar amount of time investment, can do. You can experience whole different lives, whole different worlds. You can really inhabit not just a person, but sometimes a different place, sometimes a, you know, a different way of thinking that you could never experience just in your one short brief life here on Earth.

[00:02:08]And not only can you do that, you can do that through some of the brightest minds, some of the most interesting people in history.

[00:02:16]But it's also an adventure. You can go, you can escape from the world that you live in today. And you can see something different. And maybe learn something, you know, like every great character on a quest. You go and you don't come back quite the same.

[00:02:29]So, stories can take you from where you are somewhere higher, somewhere better, somewhere more interesting.

[00:02:37]They can also form a stronger character. They can build your mind. They can make you stronger.

[00:02:44]They can make you a more complete human being.

[00:02:49]Stories also have the capability, the capacity to help us wrestle with questions that we have in our lives.

[00:02:57]Maybe by wrestling with them, by hopefully overcoming, but even if we don't, even if we're just left with the question at the end, even if we don't have an answer, maybe we have a more interesting version of the question, a better way to formulate the question, because we have spent the time to sit with it.

[00:03:14]Rather than just scrolling, rather than just allowing ourselves to go so quickly through the questions.

[00:03:20]I think a lot of reasons There are a lot of reasons that people don't really read today. You don't Maybe you might argue one of the reasons is that a lot of books are hard. That might be what we might call the Nietzschean argument, right?

[00:03:32]Books are challenging. They're too challenging and people give them give them up.

[00:03:36]You know, another reason might be there's a lot of other things to do, right? There's a lot of other things that we could do with our time.

[00:03:44]Why sit down and spend time reading?

[00:03:47]Right? It could be boring for many people.

[00:03:50]Another reason I think why a lot of people maybe might choose not to read is it feels like a waste of time. It feels like there are more efficient ways to get information.

[00:04:02]But I think that the this kind of misses the point, right? Some of the reasons that that I read, some of the reasons that, you know, reading is so valuable, they're not about exactly one thing.

[00:04:12]It's not I read because it just gives me this. I read because it helps me inhabit a different world. I read because it gives me information. I I don't read because of any one thing.

[00:04:23]I read because I enjoy it. Yes, I read because it helps challenge me intellectually.

[00:04:29]But it's more than that, right? It's It's something I can't quite explain why books are so important.

[00:04:36]Maybe a part of it is because it forces you to to learn the skills necessary to cope with the vicissitudes of life, to live a a meaningful life. It forces you to learn about yourself, to learn about others. Forces you to try to inhabit different different characters, different worlds.

[00:04:54]Forces you to challenge yourself intellectually. It forces you to slow down and relax at times. It forces you to struggle through challenging problems at other times.

[00:05:03]Reading different kinds of books gives you so many tools that you can use in everything in your life.

[00:05:10]And I think we do really feel the lack in our modern world.

[00:05:15]Yes, information technology is amazing.

[00:05:17]People can scroll, you can learn so much in such a short period of time. We can abbreviate books and we can condense the information so that we have read Moby Dick, right? Without spending all the hours and time. Why spend all the time?

[00:05:29]You can just read, you know, a synopsis of it and you understand what happens.

[00:05:34]But of course, that's not right. You miss so much.

[00:05:38]You miss the whole experience, the whole journey, the whole point of going on it.

[00:05:41]And so, you also miss sitting in a moment and challenging yourself.

[00:05:47]So, there are so many things in our world today with information and readiness, so quick at our touch, so available to us, that I think we forget there's a lot of advantages to slowing down.

[00:05:59]Reading helps us to slow down. Reading helps us to use our minds. It helps us to convene with people in different time periods, of different backgrounds.

[00:06:11]People that are very unlike us. And it allows us to inhabit their world, which is so so so important in today's world.

[00:06:19]Where it's increasingly diverse, there's people from everywhere, there's stories from everywhere. And we need to know how to navigate the complicated worlds, where it's not just one simple story and everyone agrees.

[00:06:30]Now, why you read is a question I don't think I have an answer for.

[00:06:35]I think it's still something that I'm going to be thinking about for years to come.

[00:06:40]But I'm curious, you know, as as long as I've been making these videos, I've seen so many people mention reasons why they read. And I'd love to know what some of the reasons why you read are, because reading is, for me, almost sacred. It's super important hobby. It's more than a hobby, a way of life. Reading is a way of life in order to learn about myself, learn about this world.

[00:07:04]And I really want to know, because I I'm sure I can learn so much from others, the reasons why you want to read, the reasons why you take the time to sit down and read books. Maybe you read challenging books. Maybe read books that push you or challenge you or or make you think differently or, you know, attack your sacred cows, right? The things in your life that are most important to you.

[00:07:29]Why do you do that? Why do you put yourself through that? It's an interesting question. I don't know if I have an answer for it myself.

[00:07:36]But I think reading makes me a better person.

[00:07:38]At least I think it makes me a more interesting person. And I think most people I know who read, who choose to read, who become readers, become more interesting. They become more complete, maybe.

[00:07:51]And I think reading is is such an important hobby for that reason.

[00:07:56]More than a hobby, right? A way of life, such an important way of life.

[00:08:00]And, you know, this isn't This isn't a thesis. This isn't an answer. This is really just a question.

[00:08:06]All I have here is a question. Why do you read?

[00:08:10]And hopefully some kernels of the beginning of an answer.

[00:08:16]I would love to explore this more in depth, but I'm curious and would love to hear answers from you guys.

[00:08:22]Why you read? And if you have any insight, what do you think reading does to you?

[00:08:27]Why does it make you better?

[00:08:29]All right. I hope this is helpful. I hope some people maybe got a little bit out of this or at least the question can stick with you. And I look forward to talking you guys soon.

[00:08:40]Take care.