***This is the last in a four-part series and has been updated with recommendations for teens.[1] It was originally written in September 2009 for my children.

Dear Emily, Matt, and Tim,

I know I harp on you more often than you would like about not reading enough, watching too much TV, or spending hours playing video games.   I also know you sometimes roll your eyes—even internally—and seek to avoid that predictable question: “What have you been reading lately?” In asking this question, as I have told you before, my heart is not to shame or make you feel uncomfortable. It is also not to reinforce stereotypes I sometimes deserve of being too rigid, not able to relax, or sounding like a broken record. I am learning to “chillax” more—a word I learned from your friends—but there are important reasons why I want you to learn to love reading:

1. Reading quiets your heart and stills your soul. We live in a busy, crazy world. Much of the stress and demands on our time we have little control over. If you can get into a habit of daily or weekly, non-homework reading, you will find your mind gets clearer and your soul re-centered. Find a quiet place. Stop texting for a bit. Turn off your phone and read something you are interested in and enjoy.  Read fun stuff like:
   • The Harry Potter series
   • The Time Quintet (L’Engle)
   • The Lunar Chronicles
   • Percy Jackson series
   • Sherlock Holmes
   • Treasure Island
   • The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings trilogy
   • To Kill A Mockingbird
   • The Book Thief
   • The Outsiders
   • Pride and Prejudice
   • Jane Eyre
   • The Hunger Games Series
   • Unbroken
   • The Alchemist
   • Until We Have Faces
   • The Giver
   • The Witch of Blackbird Pond
   • Johnny Tremain
   • Phoenix Files
   • The Divergent series
   • Lorien Legacies
   • The Maze Runner series
   • The Red Pyramid series
   • Michael Vey series

These books (and others like them) take you on fascinating journeys and help you relax.  Again, set   aside time each day or week. You know your schedule best.

2. Reading will help you be a strong person who others look to for leadership. While it is true that not every reader is a good leader, every good leader is a reader. Reading keeps your mind sharp. It expands your world and thinking. It makes you feel smarter and grows your imagination. It makes you a person of breadth—someone who is balanced, well-rounded, curious, culturally-literate, intelligent, interesting, and wise. These are all qualities that make you a better conversationalist, friend, counselor, and citizen.
3. Reading can help you be humbler. Pride, arrogance, and snobbery are some of the most unattractive qualities one can have. Few things are more sickening, however, than when pride is combined with ignorance and apathy. Mindsets like “I’m ignorant and proud of it,” or “I’m ignorant and could care less” almost always go with a distaste for reading and a heavy diet of TV and gaming. Read fun stuff and fiction, but also read non-fiction. Anything older than you may seem lame, but the truth is that you are standing on the shoulders of thousands of great men and women who have gone before you. You get to know these folks primarily through books. Don’t be guilty of what the great writer, C.S. Lewis, called “chronological snobbery”—that is, thinking that the times and culture you live in are the most important.

In closing, here is a quote I came across recently that speaks well to the points above:

“Books enlarge us by giving direct access to experiences not our own. In order for this to work, however, we need a certain type of silence, an ability to filter out the noise. Such a state is increasingly elusive in our over-networked culture, in which every rumor and mundanity is blogged and tweeted. Today, it seems it is not contemplation we seek but an odd sort of distraction masquerading as being in the know. Why? Because of the illusion that illumination is based on speed, that it is more important to react than to think, that we live in a culture in which something is attached to every bit of time.”[2]

I love you all very much and pray that you will be men, Tim and Matt, and a woman, Emily, of great character, humility, and serenity who lead and serve—people whose lives are strong enough to enrich others, due in part because you learned to love reading.

Dad

[1] Many thanks to Krista, Phil, Niamh, and Philly Smith, Sarah Carter, and Jon, Susanna, Lily, and Ian Cummings for their updated book selections. The suggested list includes lot of classics, as well as some that touch on tough topics. All are fun reads that have also led to some amazing discussions!

[2] Los Angeles Times book reviewer David L. Ulin [latimes.com, 8/9/09].