Growing up, I was a voracious reader. I was literally one of those children who would sneak a torch under the covers after bedtime and spend the night trying to finish tales of adventure and excitement. As I grew, so did my ideas and dreams. I could also link what I was reading to things I was learning at school, making the latter more interesting and less scary. I loved reading so much that I, too, wanted to be a writer and share my thoughts and feelings with the rest of the world. It’s for these reasons that my heart breaks a bit every time a new statistic gets published about how many books my fellow citizens read a year.
According to a survey carried out by Eurostat, over 50% of the Maltese public didn’t read a single book in 2022. Only one in nine said they had read more than ten books throughout a year, and a dismal 8% said that their yearly tally stood between five to nine books. In keeping with the international trend, 65% of Maltese men stated that they didn’t read anything in 2022, compared to 47% of women.
Now, I’m not saying that it hasn’t become more challenging to focus on reading than it has in the past, that the distractions aren’t more immediate, and the attention spans shorter, but we also can’t ignore the fact that we have never had more access to books on such a large scale in history. Books not only improve brain connectivity and the quality of the language you use, but they also help prevent cognitive decline and aid you in empathising better with others. The more stories you read, the greater your understanding of the human experience will be because people write down things they might never be able to say to others.
We need to return to a place where information is valued more than personal opinion and where people feel the need to grow their minds instead of their social media followings. Support reading initiatives, buy books for your children and your friends, seek out or create book clubs where people discuss ideas instead of other people, and take time away from your devices to immerse yourself in new worlds.
Perhaps Fran Lebowitz said it best in her book ‘The Fran Lebowitz Reader’: “Think before you speak. Read before you think.”
