Packing my bag a few days before the New Year, I had the same dilemma I always face before a trip: now that I have some time to read for pleasure, how many books can I squeeze in without making my luggage too heavy? A dear friend advised me that I could not realistically read more than two. “Oh, silly friend,” I thought to myself, “you clearly do not know me well enough to know my formidable past as a bookworm.”
On the whole, we Emiratis are very much plugged in. We are on social media, we are on websites, and we devour news articles and educational material regularly.
However, I’ve noticed recently, especially among my peers, that the act of reading purely for pleasure is slowly vanishing. I’ve heard people lament that they have no time to read any more, as well as people who genuinely do not understand the concept of reading for pleasure. To them, reading is a chore, not a choice any human of sound mind in a sound body would actually make.
I understand that for those of us who sit in an office all day reading for work, the idea of reading when we get home can be daunting. Even though reading is a perfect way to unwind, we end up spending our time in front of television or computer screens trying to relax. Several studies have demonstrated that even more than going for a walk, listening to music or having the ever-trustworthy cup of tea, reading for pleasure is the most effective way to reduce stress.
Just because we are reading for pleasure doesn’t mean that what we read can’t be educational. Anything from Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals to Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time can be pleasure reading. And, although we are older, it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy young adult fiction by authors such as John Green, or even children’s books such as JM Barrie’s Peter Pan or Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. These can be perfect ways to transport ourselves somewhere new and exciting.
As much as books are wonderful ways to educate yourself about politics or philosophy or history, they are, as author Stephen King is credited with saying, “a uniquely portable magic”. Unlike the worlds depicted in movies or television shows, those found in books are truly your own – imagined and arranged in your mind exactly as you please.
A lot of research shows that reading fiction can increase your compassion and empathy because it exposes you to different social perceptions and understanding of other people’s experiences of the world. One study showed that children who grew up reading JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels were more open minded and less discriminatory of stigmatised groups within society as a result of reading about friendships between people from different ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds.
With the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, the Sharjah International Book Fair and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, the UAE has great events for book lovers. Yet, we still have some way to go in developing the availability of diversified reading materials.
I think the habit of reading for pleasure can and should be encouraged in school and at home.
As well as helping you de-stress and encouraging your abilities to empathise, reading keeps your brain sharp and can help prevent or slow down memory decline. It improves your vocabulary, it can help you become a better writer and it is a great source of inspiration.
I could go on and on and on about the benefits, but I think I will leave the conclusion to the infallible Dr Seuss: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Fatima Al Shamsi is a globetrotting Emirati foodie, film buff and football fanatic
