I’ve been asked the question many times lately, and I honestly believe the single most important contributor to my success is the number of books I’ve read. I’m a voracious reader with a voracious mind, and all those books continually remind me how little I know. If you are a constant reader, then you never stop learning.
When I was a kid, I remember the librarian always asking if I was sure I could read “all those books” before the due date. I could, and usually did. The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Ramona Quimby, Sherlock Holmes, A Wrinkle in Time, Secret Garden, The Snowy Day, collected books of poetry… I read books intended for all ages and I read them over and over.
I read The Fountainhead in high school and felt empowered and inspired, not by the anti-environmental message or the other values for which Ayn Rand is reviled by the left, but by the idea that I could choose to use my life as I wished, and be free of my family’s expectations. Because I read that book and enjoyed it, I don’t make assumptions about people who also enjoy it. I let them explain why they like it and reserve judgment.
I read Moby Dick in my sophomore year of high school. Frankly, I was tired of reading references to it in other books (the white whale, Ahab, the floating coffin) and wanted to understand what everyone was talking about.
As I got older, my tastes changed, but not much. I still love mysteries and sci fi and big, thick tomes like Les Miserables that I can dig into and live with for a while. When I’ve had a particularly stressful day, I read a little P.G. Wodehouse to cheer me up. Or a Spellman mystery that Lisa Lutz can’t write fast enough for my taste.
If I’m frustrated with my work in journalism, in which everything is complicated and unsolved and tragic, I read a Dorothy Sayers mystery in which all the questions are answered and everyone is civil (except the murderer), and all the bad guys (and girls) get what’s coming to them in the end. It’s so satisfying.
I realize that many will think I sound like a kindergarten teacher and I’m just trying to make something boring (reading) sound exciting (worth it). But in all honesty, I think it’s the books that have helped get me where I am. Books are my mental workout, even the fun ones. They stimulate my imagination and stretch my brain muscles; they force me to be thoughtful.
It has exposed me to all kinds of perspectives. I was never as poor as Oliver Twist, but it’s reading books from that viewpoint that helped me realize how privileged I was. Novels taught me empathy. They forced me to understand that I’m not the most important or most interesting person in the world, and gently assured me that I didn’t need to be. Books are the most forgiving teachers.
You won’t succeed by simply reading, but I think it’s hard to succeed in most professions if you don’t read. Others may give you a long list of classics or “must reads”, but I say just read what you want. Find a book or a graphic novel or a magazine and dig in.