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Why We Read: The Joy, Journey, and Connection of Books

By: Valerie Taylor

Often when I’m at a craft fair or book fair, I’ll ask people who stop by my table what they like to read. The answers run the gamut, as you might expect. Of course, I secretly hope they’ll say romantic comedies or cozy mysteries—the genres I write. But some of my favorite conversations happen with readers who gravitate toward historical fiction, fantasy, or even nonfiction and self-help.

What’s remarkable is what happens when they start describing the book they’re currently reading. Their eyes light up as they talk about laughing with the characters, crying at their struggles, or feeling suspense as if the danger were their own. In that moment, their enthusiasm feels like an open invitation into their soul.

But maybe the better question isn’t what they read, but why.
 

Reading, whether on a page, a screen, or through earbuds, is a solitary activity on the surface. Yet it’s more interactive than we realize. Reading is a relationship between author and reader—even if the writer died centuries ago. In that way, books become a bridge across cultures, geographies, and time periods.

To read is also to travel—anytime, anywhere, without leaving our chair, couch, or bed. Books take us into ancient cities (think Prague in Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets), into unimaginable futures (Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles), or into lands that never existed (Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass).

Reading can also be an experiment. We live through the emotions of characters and test their choices against our own, all while staying safe in our own space and time. We ask ourselves: What would I do if this happened to me? If I were stranded on a deserted island? (Allegra Goodman explores this beautifully in Isola.)

At the same time, reading offers refuge. A book can be a shelter in a storm, a spark for curiosity, or a reminder of home. That’s part of the reason why Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights still draws readers back, especially during the holiday season.

Of course, whether or not we read is a personal choice. Yet it’s a paradox: while reading is solitary, readers love to gather. Book clubs flourish. Libraries endure. Bookstores have rebounded in the years after the pandemic.

And then there are those of us who collect books—our “to-be-read” piles stacked high like monuments to possibility. It doesn’t matter how many wait on the shelf. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “I cannot live without books.”

Which, when you think about it, might just be the best answer to the question: Why do you read?

P.S. This is me when I'm not reading or writing!