# The Power of Reading By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-01-08 Within the business literature, a frequent insight is that the best leaders are avid readers. Since this finding is in the business literature, this is an act of preaching to the choir, as only those who read will discover this insight, and it will align with their underlying view that reading is important and beneficial. Whereas such an observation holds a certain charm, there is a power of reading that one should not discount. When one reads, one takes time out of the churn to focus on thinking. Often, one is focused on thinking about something with which the reader is unfamiliar. Thoughtfully exploring unfamiliar topics is enriching and beneficial. Reading, writing, and thinking are basic skills. These are covered early in grade school and are cultivated and used throughout grad school. There should be no limit placed on their development. A person should be able to read whatever one wants. If a society bans a book, the individual should start with that book. Read all the banned books first. Then, read all the books a given society venerates. Through the process, one will likely discover a few insights. Most banned books contain something about sex, sexuality, drugs, or vulgarity. One will frequently discover these references are not the focus of the book. In the revered books, one will discover that the elements of focus within the society are marginal to the work itself. What is considered dangerous or beneficial is only a very small part of the book. As an example, the word _fuck_ appears five times in J.D. Salinger’s _The Catcher in the Rye_. The words used in the book are important. It serves a purpose. One might not like the word. One might find the word crass and coarsening. But the word does exist in our society, and a book containing a critique of society might need to use the word to capture the realities of the situation adequately. _The Catcher in the Rye_ is an excellent critique of the _phoniness_ of adults and the difficulty adolescents have in making sense of that. It’s much more likely that the book is so frequently banned because of that focus and indictment. Focusing on a given word that appears five times is just a pretext. The critical question is whether a given book supports or undermines authority. The content is largely secondary. Reading the Bible, one will find rape, incest, and violence, yet few seeking to ban books include this work in their list. The power of reading is the knowledge one acquires and the insights it provides. #### Related Items [[Reading]] [[Thinking]] [[Society]] [[Authority]] [[Power]] [[Knowledge]] [[Insights]]