Getting Lit With Literature
By: Ameriki Somers
“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror.” – Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop
As a school librarian, getting students excited about reading is one of my greatest goals, but figuring out how to make this happen for a generation that has been raised on social media and the instant gratification of video games and television, has been difficult to say the least. This push back has inspired me to research more into the motivations of why humans read to begin with.
The most obvious answer, especially in academic settings and among students of all ages, is to learn something. In many cases the reading is not optional, therefore the only real motivation for learning is perhaps to get a good grade. In a non-educational setting, we read for information by following a recipe, reading your car’s manual, or even by attempting to follow the frustrating instructions for how to put together cheap furniture. Although less common, those who choose this type of reading are often the type who thirst for knowledge and information.
The most common motivation seems to be reading to escape. I happen to be one of these readers. For those who have experienced trauma or the harsh cruelties that life can sometimes heap upon us, this escape can feel crucial at times to our mental health. Readers can escape into a fantasy full of faeries and magic, be the heroes of our own stories, fall in love, solve a mystery, etc. We may even find a sense of peace that escapes us during the harsher moments in life. To some, this kind of reading may seem frivolous, but to those that read to escape, it can sometimes feel like a life preserver, keeping us from sinking into the darkness that reality may bring.
The final motivation I have discovered in more recent years is reading to provoke. This is a harder concept for some, as provoking strong thoughts and emotions in oneself can be triggering, inducing trauma or causing feelings of pain. Reading stories that relate to the challenges we have faced in our own lives can bring up emotions we have suppressed, and even at times force us to deal with situations we had never processed in a healthy way. It can be cathartic to make ourselves feel, and sometimes even help us heal. Maybe even more importantly, this type of reading is vital in creating an understanding of the world and the people that live in it. Malorie Blackman once said that “Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while”. Reading about the lives of others that are different from our own is the best way to not only learn about others, but truly begin to understand the struggles that are faced by communities and people other than our own. This kind of reading promotes the idea of “woke-ness”, in the way it is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: to be “ aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues”, or even the more literal definition, as in being “awake”. Sometimes it takes this shock value in literature to open the eyes of those who may have been previously closed off to the realities of the world.
I recently attended the Well-Read Black Girl Book Club held at Bookmarks in Winston Salem. Our chosen read this month was How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, by Angie Cruz. This book was a great example of how literature can sometimes motivate us to read in all three ways. Our book club coordinator, Valencia Taylor, shared with us the metaphor she chose to see within the title. In her experience, “we as women, especially women of color, mothers, daughters, wives, caregivers, etc.are often expected to repress our own grief, pain and loneliness, to be the glue that holds everything together for those around us”. The glass of water is seemingly harmless, but if we forget to take small sips or remember to breathe, we can easily drown in the lives we have built up around us. Throughout the story, readers will learn about the history of the Great Recession in New York City, be entertained by the humor and dramatics in big city apartment life, and face the inhumanities and pain caused by gentrification and prejudice in all its forms.
No matter the type of reader you are, whether you read to escape reality, or discover it; to find yourself or connect with others, keep finding that motivation to read, because the value is not in the why, but in the discovery of truth and self. To join the Well Read Black Girl Book Club or to learn more, visit Bookmarksnc.org/wrbg.
