Reading Changed My Life

Often, during a dark hour or an idle point, a book has changed our lives. Countless books have pointed us in a different direction or taught us a new lesson. Stories have helped us articulate our emotions or thoughts, and helped us find a voice. If it weren’t for the books we have read, we would have been very different people today. Books, especially good ones, have that sort of power. If you let them, they can change your life, serve as another compass or guide, or give you a lift when you need it most. We are sure that even if you do not read a lot, you can think of at least one book that fundamentally changed you as a human being.

Like Gaiman says, Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it’s hard because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going to end … that’s a genuine drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going.

And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is me, as well. You’re someone else, and when you return to your own world, you’re going to be slightly changed.