It seems that people continue to read books.
It depends on how people are grouped, but the signs are positive.
Baby Boomers seem to continue to love reading. And they have read a lot over their lifetimes. And this was the generation that grew up with television.
Younger generations seem to be reading less than Boomers. But perhaps that changes with age. Younger generations have the benefit of growing up and coming of age with ebooks and with libraries full of print books. Despite streaming services and mobile entertainment, these generations till have an affinity for reading books.
Reading has many benefits for life in general. It’s almost always been associated with success. And it’s not just life in general. There are benefits for activities such as blogging.
Whether you’re blogging for personal growth or for business, reading books can be a great add-on strategy…
1. Unique Lessons
Every time I read a book I seem to find at least one unique lesson. Now, I tend to read a lot of biographies and autobiographies. My favorites are those that don’t necessarily aim to provide lessons. They simply tell the stories of the lives of people. That allows readers to take away their own lessons.
But I find that you can do the same with other types of books. You can do it with fiction. You can do it even with business-type books. Even those that share specific lessons offer opportunities for the readers to interpret those lessons in their own ways.
There have been many times when a small snippet of a book has inspired me to write a blog post. Often, this leads to relatively unique content in a world full of content.
2. Longform Focus
Mobile social media has made it really easy to consume short-form content. We can read hundreds of tweets in a minute. We can look at hundreds of photos. Unlimited scrolling. Short text, video and audio.
That’s all fine, but it seems to be leading to a lack of focus. We consume something and then we’re on to the next. It’s not good or bad. It just trains the brain differently.
Books, on the other hand, force the brain to focus on longform content. It takes a different type of focus to be able to finish a book that is 300 pages. Often, we’re required to go back and reread small sections to make sure we’re not missing anything.
This comes in handy when blogging. Often, it requires at least an hour to write a 600-word blog post. Some posts require much longer. Even certain 1,500-word posts require weeks to research and write. That requires longform and long-term focus.
Books can train your brain for longform.
3. Quality Information
It’s gotten easier to publish books.
In the 1900s, book publishing seemed to explode. Then in the 2000s, there has been a boom in independent publishing. That’s also been true with digital publishing.
But it’s still not easy to write and publish a book. Especially popular books. In order for a book to become popular, it typically has to go through extensive editing.
As a result, the information in a book is generally high quality. Obviously that’s not always the case. And quality is subjective. But at least a few people had to believe in the quality of the material in order for the book to be published.
Consuming information helps your blogging. Published books have had and continue to have some of the highest quality information available.
4. Extensive History
You can read books that are 1,000+ years old. That’s incredible. A lot of life happens in a thousand years. It’s easy to think that what we’re going through, good or bad, is brand new. In certain ways, it is. But in many ways, it’s not new. People have been going through tragedy, crisis, joy and booms for eternity.
Reading allows you to have a level perspective on life today. Books may not have all the answers, but they do have quite a few. The more you read, especially old books, the more you understand about life. And the more you understand life, the better your writing seems to be.
5. Higher Writing Benchmark
The more books I read, the more I realize how subpar my writing is. Compared to myself when I first starting blogging in 2009, I’m not too bad. But compared to authors that write books, I need some work.
This seems to occur in many areas of life. The more we look at our peers and at those that came before us, the more we realize how much room there is for improvement.
If writing and blogging are your chosen vocations, reading is imperative. It gives you an ever increasing list of benchmarks to hit as you go through life.
Conclusion
At first glance, I though perhaps reading books had declined in popularity in recent years. There is just so much competition for attention, entertainment and education. And not simply reading any text content, but reading books. The good news is that it seems people continue to read books. And that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for life in general, but also if you’re a blogger. So continue to read. It’ll help you become better at what you’re doing.