The impact of reading widely and well is marked, tangible, quantifiable, immense, multifaceted, and extremely valuable.
It fashions our personhood in a way that can’t be replicated in any other way, and by forming us as people, it thereby impacts communities, societies, and the entire world.
It enlivens our minds.
It stretches our perspectives.
It gives us dimension.
It teaches us how to think.
It deepens our understanding and it increases our capacity for everything good.
So, when I speak about the ways that Charlotte Mason Social Media impacts reading, I’m not doing it for buzz or sensation.
I’m doing it because reading well matters.
And, CM social media is a threat to reading well.
Over the weekend, I read a book that is a “Christian classic”, oft beloved by readers in this community, and it was one of the worst books I’ve ever read.
Objectively, it is terribly written.
I also often observe newer books being read in this community and being reviewed in a way that reveals a lack of understanding about language, writing, and literary quality.
Now, to be clear, I think personal reading taste is important. We can love books upon a spectrum of quality. We can even love bad books. We contain multitudes.
But we should KNOW that they’re bad books.
We should KNOW when a book released this year is a masterful work of art and we should KNOW when a book written 100 years ago is a didactic pile of poorly constructed words.
If you read “classics” but you don’t appreciate the masterful work of the brilliant minds in our presence today…
You’re just a reader of classics, not a good reader.
If you read classics but can’t identify when the writing within them is didactic and clunky or you read new books and can’t identify what they’re doing and why…
You’re just an “old” reader, not a good one.
CM social media is crippling our ability to be good readers by convincing us that older is inherently better.
This community champions reading, and I’m calling us to be accountable to put our reading money where our mouth is and be GOOD readers, not just “CM Readers”.
There’s a difference.
It fashions our personhood in a way that can’t be replicated in any other way, and by forming us as people, it thereby impacts communities, societies, and the entire world.
It enlivens our minds.
It stretches our perspectives.
It gives us dimension.
It teaches us how to think.
It deepens our understanding and it increases our capacity for everything good.
So, when I speak about the ways that Charlotte Mason Social Media impacts reading, I’m not doing it for buzz or sensation.
I’m doing it because reading well matters.
And, CM social media is a threat to reading well.
Over the weekend, I read a book that is a “Christian classic”, oft beloved by readers in this community, and it was one of the worst books I’ve ever read.
Objectively, it is terribly written.
I also often observe newer books being read in this community and being reviewed in a way that reveals a lack of understanding about language, writing, and literary quality.
Now, to be clear, I think personal reading taste is important. We can love books upon a spectrum of quality. We can even love bad books. We contain multitudes.
But we should KNOW that they’re bad books.
We should KNOW when a book released this year is a masterful work of art and we should KNOW when a book written 100 years ago is a didactic pile of poorly constructed words.
If you read “classics” but you don’t appreciate the masterful work of the brilliant minds in our presence today…
You’re just a reader of classics, not a good reader.
If you read classics but can’t identify when the writing within them is didactic and clunky or you read new books and can’t identify what they’re doing and why…
You’re just an “old” reader, not a good one.
CM social media is crippling our ability to be good readers by convincing us that older is inherently better.
This community champions reading, and I’m calling us to be accountable to put our reading money where our mouth is and be GOOD readers, not just “CM Readers”.
There’s a difference.
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