Reading is one of the most enriching tasks you can ever experience. Etymologically "to read" comes from the Latin verb "legere" which means "to catch." Reading is deciphering a message, understanding what is hidden behind external signs, is unraveling and discovering. It takes us to an infinitely unknown universe, new and rich in depths that we only value when we try to immerse ourselves in it.
However, in our country the readership index has decreased due to daily constraints, high costs of the publishing industry, lack of time, massive use of the Internet, among other factors that conspire to their detriment, especially among young people. According to international studies, Peru is one of the countries in the region with the lowest reading comprehension index and it is calculated that the annual per capita level of reading does not reach two books per inhabitant.
There are those who believe that reading is a complex task, boring, distant and lacking in the action that other "distractions" offer. Perhaps there is responsibility in the most intimate environment of the person: the family. Families that do not incorporate reading in their developmental aspirations. "Tell me what your library is like and I'll tell you who you are" is an expression that I like to remember when I try - countless times in vain - to talk about the importance of this activity. A library is the "mirror" of your intellectual ambitions. Parents do not read, and fewer therefore have intelligent, interesting, and documented conversations that illustrate their children. An analogous situation occurs when the only topics of conversation, among people supposedly of high professional status, are the cost of living, children, grandchildren,the weather and the office. On those occasions we can verify that reading is not present in the lives of those who participate, with lively enthusiasm, only in those talks.
The brilliant writer Jorge Luis Borges used to say: "I have read a lot, but I have lived little." According to the author of "Aleph" this expression corresponds to when he was 30 years old. Some time later he discovered - despite his blindness - that reading was a way of living intensely and, in the afternoon of his life, he concluded that he had lived long enough. Reading helps us to go through, in a pleasant way, scenarios even unimaginable.
For her part, the writer Carmen Lomas Pastor, in her work “Hogar familiar” points out: “…. Reading is of great importance in the process of development and maturation of children. It provides culture, develops the aesthetic sense, acts on the formation of the personality, is a source of recreation and joy. It constitutes a vehicle for learning, for the development of intelligence, for the acquisition of culture and for the education of the will ”. From my point of view, it is also a "trip" to the most remote destinations and a way of understanding our complex national reality. Through it we can get involved with our social context and assume a feeling of identity and belonging that is so necessary.
Reading engages us in the development of new capacities that, probably, we have not discovered. Helps to improve language, improves expression, vocabulary and spelling; increases human relationships, personal contacts and favors empathy; it facilitates the exposition of one's own thought and enables the ability to think; it is a tool that activates mental functions, speeding up intelligence; it opens up the imagination and creativity (according to the writer and teacher Iván Thais, the best advertising students are young people who, from an early age, have spread the habit of reading). Finally, it increases the cultural baggage, provides information, knowledge and broadens the horizons of the subject. A cultured and, furthermore, educated man has favorable elements to project a positive image in the personal and work environment.
It is a hobby that envelops the person, dignifies them and communicates a special delight. You will better understand your life and life itself. Get out of that deep well that is ignorance "convenient" to the interests of those who seek to keep our society subdued, to abuse it. Reading revolts, promotes disagreement, gives "world" and strengthens self-esteem, essential components to get out of the moral, civic and cultural third worldism that afflicts us. The Argentine politician and thinker Nicolás Avellaneda commented well: "When I hear that a man has the habit of reading, I am willing to think well of him."
(*) Teacher, lecturer, journalist, consultant in event organization, protocol, professional image and social etiquette.
