Friends of the Libraries' Guest Columnist Features Reading vital to future of democracy By Joe Burke April 2, 2005 The Athens Messenger

I have always loved to read. Ever since I can remember I enjoyed books, or should I say a good story.

Novelists were able to pull me into their story and make me believe the lives of their various characters. I admired their ability to create worlds that seemed so real and believable that it was hard not to think that these people actually existed and the actions and plots weren't really happening. The better written the story the more real everything became, even when they acted in outrageous or extreme ways. I have always been quite willing to be "taken" by a good writer.

I can recall my various reading phases. The Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes, and a science fiction period where I read every Arthur C. Clark and Ray Bradbury book I could. That wasn't difficult since my father had quite an extensive collection of sci-fi books. One entire wall of his den from floor to ceiling was shelving filled with science fiction books organized in alphabetical order by author's last name. I can remember going in there and at first being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of books. I moved on from sci-fi to biographies of famous historical figures.

When my wife and I started our own family I was reintroduced to children's literature, as we made it a ritual to read to our two boys. Margaret Wise Brown, E.B. White, Jack Ezra Keats, Virginia Lee Burton and others became close friends as we knew that we could always count on them for a good story.

The experience was wonderful on two levels. It gave me an excuse as an adult to enter into the magical world of a child's imagination. I had permission to let myself be comforted by "Good Night Moon" while my thoughts ran wild with "Max!" Equally delightful was listening to our boys react to the stories and watching them connect a story about giving a mouse a cookie to their make believe play. In their world, one thing led to another.

But I've always felt the tug of fiction. For me, a good story is not just a pleasure to read, enjoying the careful word selection and the cadence of the work, but is often full of life lessons.

But why read when there are so many alternatives vying for our consideration? Cable, the movies, CDs, DVDs, computers, video games, all compete for our attention.

In most of these examples we are fairly passive and little is really required of us. So why read when it demands so much from us? Reading makes us focus our attention for a sustained period of time. Unlike the special effects of movies, the only special effects with a novel beyond the words on the page are those we employ through the use of our imaginations. Reading requires us to use our powers of attention, memory and imagination.

Other than the sheer pleasure one can get from reading I think there is something else quite important about it. Nothing less than the future of our democracy is at stake. Perhaps this is a bit of hyperbole but I think not.

To be truly free, to be up to the challenges of a democracy we need to be able to pay attention for sustained periods of time, use our imaginations, and remember.

Reading enhances our capacity to pay attention, think about alternatives, and to recall. Memory, imagination, and attentiveness are vital skills that a citizenry needs to sustain a way of life and especially to improve one. To be in a position to make judgments about the quality of our lives now and for the future requires us to be engaged and informed.

Reading is work especially when compared to watching television or playing computer games. But not unlike many things in our lives the benefits and pleasures that come with it are enormous and fulfilling. Besides it's fun to hold something in one's hands, slowly turn the pages and be carried away by our own imagination.

Joe Burke is the director of residence life and the initiator of the common book project at Ohio University.