The Importance of Reading Beyond Our Own Experiences

I admittedly live in a community that can be lacking in diversity. It’s one thing that small towns are regrettably lacking. But just because I have to go looking a little further doesn’t mean there isn’t a wealth of diverse experience within my reach. 

Reading a novel transports you into someone else’ head–like it literally places you in another individual’s perspective. Whether that person is real or fictitious, all thoughts and ideas germinate from real people with real feelings and real lives.

I know my experiences will never be the same as another’s, but I believe that at a deeper level we all have a desire to understand one another and reach out. 

This is the basis for Literature Therapy. The idea that reading develops empathy. Empathy for ourselves and others. As we experience the lives of others, we understand them better, and we are better equipped to live in this diverse world and interact with its many beautiful people.

Below are three of the beautiful books I read this week that gave me the experience to widen my perspective. 

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Every now and then, I dress my thoughts in the clothing of a poem. Try to figure out if my world changes once I set down these words.

Elizabeth Acevedo in The Poet X

Xiomara’s Catholic mother, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, has a plan for who her daughter is. X doesn’t know if she can still be devout to her mother’s beliefs. More than anything, what I saw in this book was a story of a girl searching for God. A girl absorbing a tradition that did not make sense to her and learning that it’s okay to question and find truth for yourself. 

Slay by Brittany Morris

Racism crops up in so many places, I should be used to it by now. But I shouldn’t have to be.

-Brittany Morris in Slay

Slay is the virtual reality gaming experience that seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson has created. Slay is her safe haven. A space where she doesn’t have to exist as a minority. A place where she doesn’t have to constantly struggle with the complexities of being Black in White America. That is, until tragedy strikes from within Slay. 

A Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

I'VE NEVER BEEN

in an        earthquake.
Don't        know if this was
even        close to how they
are,        but the ground
defi        nitely felt like
it o        pened up
and        ate me.

-Jason Reynolds in A Long Way Down

Will’s older brother, Shawn is dead. He was shot. All Will knows how to do is follow the rules. “Rule no. 3 Revenge / Do. / No matter what.” Once he decides to follow rule no. 3, Will steps onto an elevator where the past unfolds between each floor on the way down.