Reading is a uniquely human experience. It’s something that has grown over time and impacts our culture more greatly over time. Reading can have a wider impact on groups, but its true impact lies in how it affects individuals.
- Reading spreads ideas: When business leaders and government heads want to share ideas, they write them down in books. When journalists want to share news, they print them in newspapers and magazines.
- Reading promotes education: Literacy provides more equal access to quality education among different social classes. Opportunity for education opens opportunities for employment and income.
- Reading deepens the human condition. The books we read shape the people we become. Reading builds character and forms personalities. We cannot be regular readers without being changed by the things we read.
- Reading immortalizes authors: Classic literature endures time and change. Those writers who crafted these pieces speak to audiences far beyond their own lifetimes. Authors are beloved for their ability to entertain readers for all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muuWRKYi09s
Books spread ideas, and ideas change people, who in turn shape history. Therefore, a particularly powerful book can shape people and change history.
- The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: Introduced a wealth of scientific theories, including survival of the fittest
- The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud: The original Freudian slip gave the world his ideas on psychology and human sexuality
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu: Even thousands of years after its writing, it remains the most influential book on warfare
- A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson: Not the first English dictionary, but the most sophisticated at the time in 1755
- The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli: Innovative when published in 1532, one of the first pieces of political philosophy
- The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith: One of the first pieces of national economics, it’s still referenced hundreds of years later
- The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Gave Lenin, Mao, and Castro some ideas for how to organize their governments
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: An influential anti-slavery novel that helped begin the process of the abolitionist movement
- Common Sense by Thomas Paine: A pamphlet explaining rational reasoning behind the American Revolution
- The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: Helped expose the poor working conditions of industrial America