A good book helps one to deal less inadequately with life – so said the British literary critic F R Leavis. That’s because reading opens us up to new worlds of imaginative possibility, exercises the mind, helps us to empathise with others and teaches us how to express ourselves. It gives us a way to understand the thoughts and motivations of the humans who came before us and to tackle the best ideas of the brightest among us today. In literature, as in non-fiction, the reader’s world view is upgraded by the ideas of the author. We grow through reading, which is why the new project to persuade children to read 50 Arabic books a year is great news. There are many wonderful Arabic books for kids to read – and the initiative should encourage even more authors to tell stories.
The rise of e-books, too, will aid the drive by opening up the wider world of literature. Publishers are put off by the lack of scale implicit in Arabic book publishing – small print runs mean low margins. But new technology translates to new methods of distribution and lower costs, which should mean more new books. And, of course, a firm grasp of classical Arabic is vital to understanding the Quran and the hadiths, to appreciating the challenges of Islamic jurisprudence, and to valuing the history, traditions and development of poetry and literature in Arabic.
Reading a new book every week takes discipline. It means you have to make reading an active and regular part of your life. It means that you’re always looking for new reading material, always mulling over the latest thing you’ve read. Training children to find time for hobbies to fit around the working day is good practice for later life. For parents, reading aloud with your kids is a fun way to help them learn.
The verbal and intellectual dexterity you gain from reading as a child stays with you. As adults, we are lucky if we can look back on our early confrontations with literature, and remember the words of Lewis Carroll, who wrote, in the magnificent and fantastical Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland : “The muscular strength which it gave to my jaw / Has lasted the rest of my life.”