Bernard Beckett: On What Reading Brings Humanity

New Zealand Book Council

This month we launched the inaugural Book Council Reading Doctor, helmed by award-winning Kiwi author Kate De Goldi. She will respond to questions from anyone with burning questions on children’s and YA reading from now through to Christmas. Alongside this, we kick off a Happy Young Readers series on Booknotes Unbound, inviting children’s book authors and booklovers to contribute a range of pieces, from book recommendations for young readers through to features on the worth and art of reading itself. First up, Bernard Beckett — award-winning author, teacher, father, reader — explores how reading is key to raising children who do us, and themselves proud.


 Bernard Beckett

There’s nothing like parenthood for exposing one’s deepest prejudices and pre-conceptions. The special joy I take from the pleasure my three year old boys get in being read to speaks clearly of an unexamined assumption I carry: that somehow, reading is just good. To watch them intently scan each page as the familiar words fall into place, to see their anxiety rise, as the beloved Dogger goes missing, and then observe their relief and satisfaction when the key moment of generosity unfolds — that is priceless. In such moments, it seems so indisputable that reading is itself an act of virtue that questioning it is surely madness.

And yet, question it we should, if only to make our case stronger. And increasingly, we do need to make the case for reading, because in a growing number of homes books are no longer commonplace. This isn’t just because of a lack of literacy or resource, but also because of the phenomenon of digital crowding. When I was growing up, the distractions were far fewer. One could read, or draw, watch television, listen to music, or run around outside. The palette was sufficiently limited that probably most of the options would be explored. Not so today. Earlier in the year I asked a class of sixteen-year-olds how many hours a week they spent interacting with digital media. It averaged out at over thirty hours a week. That’s more time than they spend in class rooms. From social networks, to video sharing, watching downloaded tv and movies, listening to music and playing games, the  alternative to reading are vast, rich and insistent.
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