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For the love of reading
January 20, 2021
Like many, I read, listened and watched my way through lockdown and fervently recommended the content I loved to anyone who would listen. Of course, I’ve missed having a social life but there’s no denying the past 10 months have given me back some clarity.
Working in PR quickly teaches you the importance of absorbing a wide range of content; different styles, voices, forms and genres all add inspiration to our armory of ideas. Podcasts, radio, film and TV absolutely play their part in this but, in my opinion, no medium is as valuable to us as the book.
To be great writers for our clients we have to be great readers – seeing words written down on a page teaches us how to build a story. Reading brilliant and varied texts helps us to improve our own writing, even if it’s subconscious. Reading teaches us skills that are hard to learn, hard to teach and harder yet to realise we’re lacking. It expands our vocabulary, enables us to see things from another point of view and empowers us to empathise with others. And given the year we’ve had, it helps that reading reduces stress, aids sleep readiness, lowers blood pressure and heart rate.
We read a lot in the working day – from news articles to extended whitepapers and everything in between. And while the thought of opening a novel before bed might be daunting to some, for me it’s a reminder that what we read can teach us more than just writing skills.
This year books taught me a lot. I know more about the Nigerian-Biafran War, the refugee crisis, Mormon fundamentalists and asylum seekers in Mexico than I ever knew before. I learnt about Turkey, India, Afghanistan, New York, Syria, the southern states of America, the canals in Battersea Rise and the streets of north London. In a year that has been pretty sedentary, books have allowed me to travel – at least in my thoughts.
So while reading has the added benefit of helping us PRs with our writing skills, I’d be lying if I said it was my only motivation. But if you still need convincing, I’ll leave you with the very wise words of Stephen King:
“Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
Florence Gartland