I am a compulsive reader. As a child, I read my way through dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, and the Book of Common Prayer. I love to get new things to read, especially in the snail mail. There is something about the feel of paper and the smell of ink that no screen, even with the greatest pictures and video, can easily replace.
I currently subscribe to around 20 journals and magazines. The selection is fairly eclectic - Midwifery Today, Magnificat, Ladies Home Journal, Reader's Digest, Journal of Ob/Gyn (the green journal), Envoy, Today's Liturgy, Asimov's Science Fiction, Women's Health in Primary Care, Catholic Digest, Cooking Lite, and a few others. I am trying to control my addiction, but there are still periodicals that I lust after.
I worry about the decreasing literacy of the next generations. My children are all readers, voracious readers. I tried to have a plentiful supply of quality words around for them to read. I think that it is fair to say that I read my way into the church, and as I continue to read I learn more about my adopted faith. I have found the writings of those who have gone before me to be valuable. I find audio and video tape apostolates to be valuable. Still, I maintain that there is nothing like a book or pamphlet to stir up discussion and spur critical thinking. I have not forbidden television, radio, or movies to myself or my children. I was concerned about the 'forbidden fruit seeming sweeter' phenomenon. There is good to be found in all media, as well as filth and garbage. An advantage to printed media is that it is processed a little more slowly, and that it requires the use of the imagination to a degree that is not true of other media.
So here is a thanks to all the writers, past, present and future. May they all continue to write and to be read.
