Growing Up Surrounded by Books Could Have Powerful, Lasting Effect on the Mind

Respondents, who ranged in age from 25 to 65, were asked to estimate how many books were in their house when they were 16 years old. The research team was interested in this question because home library size can be a good indicator of what the study authors term book-oriented socialization. Participants were able to select from a given range of books that included everything from 10 or less to more than 500.

via getpocket.com

When I was younger I loved books. I idled away many an hour in bookstores all over the US and a few in England and Ireland. Then about 10 years ago I stopped loving books. Mostly because I had to move my library too many times and each book came to bear the weight of an accusation of what it contained that I had never read. It became obvious to me that I would never finish reading all the books in my library before I died. So it became a reminder to me of my own mortality. If I knew I would never die, or at least had another 50 to 100 years, I’m sure I’d still be loving those books.

The other thing I hadn’t banked on was my eyesight going bad. Those old wives’ tales about too much reading ruining your eyes in my case are borne out. I have my Kindle and my eyeglasses to help me out, but it’s not the same as really sitting down and reading a book book.

But I surrounded myself with books growing up. And 3 out of my 4 sons benefited from all the books in our house. LWJ is a reader, too, though mostly novels and religious books. I read lots of novels as a youth — great ones like those of Thomas Mann or even Thomas Pynchon. Now I read mostly history and folklore and more history. (The folklore is Kindle’s fault.) My attention span is lamentably brief. Also political philosophy I guess you could call it. For a while I read a lot of popular science and accounts of various wilderness and climbing adventures. Sailing. The list goes on.

I wish I’d taken the money I spent on books I never read and invested it in the S&P 500. I’d be a rich man.