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David Burke Click Here for more articles by David Burke  

This summer my friends and roommates have been “checking out” a lot of my books, convinced their time was well spent. One even thanked me for rekindling his interest in reading for pleasure – an interest far too many people ignore.

I know for some of you reading and fun are not words you like to put together in a sentence – unless, of course, the sentence is “reading is not fun.” Why should you read for fun? When should you read? What should you read? These are the questions I will try to answer in fewer than 800 words.

The primary reason to read is for enjoyment. Good literature can elicit all sorts of responses from its readers. I know many people who have shed tears over a book. I have laughed out loud while reading a book more times than I can remember. I have found some books so entertaining I have literally raced up and down stairs to various tenants in my apartment complex to read them the hilarious excerpts. 

Another reason to read is to stimulate your mind. Good books can introduce you to new ideas and concepts. They can teach you new ways to view the world, and some books can even change your life. Henry David Thoreau described the benefits of reading well when he wrote books can “explain our miracles and reveal new ones.”

Now that you know why you should read, you need to know when you should read. The answer is simple. You should read whenever you feel like reading. I try and read for about an hour a day. My favorite time to read is right before I go to bed. There are no distractions, so I can completely immerse myself in a book. 

If you don’t want to read before bed, then anytime you can concentrate is a good time. Thoreau wrote, “Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.” You can’t do that with distractions competing for your attention, so find a quiet spot before you start turning pages.

Now we come to my favorite part of the column: what to read. Everyone has different tastes, so I will try to come up with some of my personal favorites in a variety of fields.

But my first tip on what to read is one word – classics. You can’t go wrong reading the most enduring, captivating and thoughtful books ever written. Look to Thoreau, Steinbeck, Shakespeare, Homer, Hemingway, Faulkner and the many others who could be mentioned in the same sentence.

The Random House Web site has a link to some top 100 lists that may be very helpful. Most of the books on those lists make for stimulating reads, with the obvious exception of all books by L. Ron Hubbard, which are only available to be purchased or checked out by whackos who believe in some sort of Volcano God that desperately needs your money. 

If you like entertaining novels, then Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving are great places to start. If you like philosophy, try Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha,” “The Wisdom of the Buddha” (no, I’m not a Buddhist), and Thoreau’s “Walden.” If you enjoy plays, check out Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.”

Beginning free reading will have a snowball effect. Many books mention other books that influenced the authors or cover similar topics in either the forewords or the main text itself. These are great places to find more books of interest. 

If you’re not sure what your tastes are, here are 10 books I would want with me on a desert island along with those I already mentioned: “East of Eden,” “The Professor’s House,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “On the Road,” “The Red Dragon,” “The Odyssey,” “Catcher in the Rye,” “A People’s History of the United States” and “Hurricane.” That ought to keep you busy for a while!