Why I Read

Five reasons + 25 book recs

Photo by Kelsy Gagnebin on Unsplash

As I strive to be more intentional about my reading life this year, I realized it would be helpful for me to revisit the reasons I read in the first place. I’ve worked in education for over a decade and something I hear leaders say is to remember your why, to reflect on the reasons you’re doing what you’re doing. While I might sometimes roll my eyes at that statement, I admit it can be useful.

Remembering my why can help me simplify by reminding me of the basics and it can encourage me to get out of a rut. I’m a creature of habit who thrives on a routine, so I can easily find myself repeating behaviors, even when they’re not serving me. Remembering why I started doing something can strengthen my passion for that thing or serve as a reminder that it’s no longer working for me anymore.

Knowing why I read also helps me choose better books and have appropriate expectations going into them. I’m a mood reader, so the reasons I start a book change. If I pick up a long biography expecting it to be a riveting page-turner the whole way through, I might be disappointed. The same would be true if I grabbed a mystery novel and thought it would help with professional development (though working with teenagers can be mysterious, so maybe that would actually work out).

The reasons I read have changed throughout my life, and the list I’m sharing with you today will surely change in the future. But for now, I realized there are five primary reasons why I read: entertainment, growth, community, empathy, and beauty. I hope you’ll stick around as I unpack these terms, explain why they matter, and recommend some books that fall into each category. Let’s get started with entertainment.

Entertainment

One of the reasons I read—and the reason I think most people read—is to be entertained. I like reading for the same reason I enjoy a good television show or movie. It’s fun to be transported into another world or get lost in a gripping story. I delight in laughing along with well-written jokes or feeling the tension that arises in a taut thriller. I love getting so focused on a book that an hour or two has passed without me realizing it.

When life feels difficult and leaves me overwhelmed, reading for entertainment is my default. Reaching for a fun or lighthearted book is a surefire way to get me out of a reading slump. As an English major, I read hundreds of pages a week in college, but even though I was reading so much, I missed reading for fun. I craved reading just to be entertained, even though I liked much of what I was assigned for school. Entertaining books can certainly teach and enlighten, but those are bonuses when all you want is a high-interest story.

Here are five entertaining books I’ve enjoyed:

• The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson

  • This sweet and funny story follows a woman as she takes over her friend’s bookshop and starts bringing the community together through banned books and secret events.

• The Examiner by Janice Hallett

  • An epistolary novel that follows art students in a grad program as they work on a group project during which one person vanishes.

• Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera

  • A woman is forced to reexamine her role in her best friend’s death when a podcaster turns her tragedy into a show.

• Watching You by Lisa Jewell

  • No one is who they seem to be in this upscale neighborhood in Bristol.

• Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

  • Two women become dangerously entwined when one starts working as the assistant to the other, a secretive writer.

Growth

The second reason I read is to grow. I love learning. My mom told me I’d bring her phonics flashcards when I was three and say, “Mommy, learn me.” (Wasn’t three-year-old Andrea precious?) I’m curious about many things and always have been. I want to know why and how things work the way they do, and books are my constant companion for “why” and “how” questions.

As I thought about reading for growth, I realized I care about growing in four primary areas: intellectual, spiritual, personal, and professional.

For intellectual growth, I like to pick up books about history, politics, writing, or social science. When I’m seeking spiritual growth, I want books that challenge my perspective of faith and represent cultures and identities other than mine. The personal growth books I gravitate toward are often about cooking or home decor/organizing. (I love a labeled basket so much!) I don’t read much for professional growth, but when I do, they’re books about library work or education.

Here are five books that have helped me grow:

• Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari

  • An unputdownable exploration of the drug war, why it’s failed, and how we can change our policies to reduce incarceration and save lives.

• Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes DuMez

  • If you want to know why so many white Evangelicals are loyal to Donald Trump, read this book.

• Share Your Stuff. I'll Go First: 10 Questions to Take Your Friendships to the Next Level by Laura Tremaine

  • A helpful guide to rethinking and deepening your friendships.

• Simple Matters: Living with Less and Ending Up with More by Erin Boyle

  • This beautifully designed book is a reminder that minimalism doesn’t have to be stale and uninviting.

• This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley

  • A collection of stunning essays about faith, family, storytelling, grief, and hope.

Community

Reading for community has been one of the biggest delights of my reading life. I was never interested in joining a book club until my friend Mary asked me to help lead the one our school offered for students and staff. The first book we read after I joined was a dystopian novel my entire group hated. Despite none of us liking the book, we had fantastic discussions. I’ve been hooked on book clubs ever since and even started one in another of my work sites.

Book clubs (and recommendations from friends) serve as in-person community, but I also read to be part of the literary community online, which is one of the reasons I have this Substack. I’m often drawn to books I might not otherwise choose for myself because they’re getting a lot of buzz from the readers I follow and trust. This happened with James by Percival Everett, a book I ended up loving. I like being able to participate in bookish conversations, whether they’re through my school book clubs or here on Substack because they make the reading experience richer and more memorable.

Here are some of the best books I’ve read in community:

• Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

  • Baldwin’s brilliance shines in this moving coming-of-age novel about a young boy wrestling with his spiritual and personal identity.

• Good Talk by Mira Jacob

  • This fantastic graphic novel about parenting, politics, and race in America made me appreciate the graphic format for the first time.

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

  • An exploration of slavery and generational trauma that follows two sisters and their family lines through the slave trade to the modern day.

• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

  • Based on the story of Erdrich’s grandfather, this historical novel is about place and belonging for Native people.

• Sula by Toni Morrison

  • Two girlhood friends go their separate ways, reunite, and deal with the fallout from their entwined lives.

Empathy

It's easy for me to become satisfied by the little bubbles I create for myself. I'm automatically drawn to others like me, whose experiences mirror mine. That can be a good, comforting thing, but looking outward is vital if I'm going to be the type of person I want to be who recognizes goodness and humanity in those who are nothing like me at all. There are many ways to develop empathy, and reading is one of the most effective for me.

I want texts that take me outside my own story and plant me in someone else's. I've learned so much over the years from reading memoirs about those who struggle with addiction, depression, poverty, or who face disability. Novels about single moms, young Black men, racial tension, and complicated romances show me things I might not have otherwise seen. Books open my eyes to lives beyond the one I live in, and that is one of reading's most precious gifts.

Here are some of the books that have helped develop my empathy:

• Dominicana by Angie Cruz

  • When a teenage girl is pushed by her family to marry a much older man, she moves with him from the Dominican Republic to the United States where she has to deal with his abuse and find her own way forward.

• Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones

  • This memoir chronicling the author’s disability and journey of self-discovery was one of my favorite 2024 reads.

• Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

  • Crosley explores grief and remembers a dear friend who died by suicide in this moving memoir.

• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

  • A family is touched by incarceration, addiction, and loss in this gripping portrait of a Southern family on the brink of great change.

• There There by Tommy Orange

  • A group of modern Native lives intersect at a big powwow.

Beauty

Don’t you love those moments when you’re reading and come across a sentence or paragraph that forces you to pause so you can soak it in? Do you ever read poetry that you don’t quite understand, but you still know it’s beautiful? When these moments happen to me, they always feel like a holy gift, like a moment that transcends time, space, and logic and exists somewhere else without the boundaries of our physical world. Maybe I’m making too much out of words, but if we’re not going to celebrate these moments when we’re gobsmacked by truth and goodness, we’re going to miss a key element of reading, which is encountering beauty.

I want to spend time with beautiful words and sentences. I want to read books that leave me in awe of someone’s skill. I want to read the same lines over and over again, rejoicing in their musicality or profundity. I want more of those moments when words on a page come to life and invite me into a bigger story than I imagined for myself. Reading can do many things for us, but introducing us to beauty is perhaps the most sacred to me.

Here are books that were full of beautiful words and thoughts:

• Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

  • An older father approaching the end of his life writes to his young son imparting wisdom about faith and family.

• Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith

  • A small but mighty book reminding me to savor the goodness of the everyday.

• My Bright Abyss: Meditations of a Modern Believer by Christian Wiman

  • After being diagnosed with cancer, a poet turns to prose as he processes life, death, and spirituality.

• Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle

  • This exploration of how art and faith intersect was one of the first books that made me feel seen and validated as a young adult.

• John Donne’s poetry

  • I love many poets, but no one draws me in like Donne.

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Now that I’ve shared why I read, I want to hear why you read. Do any of our reasons overlap? Do you turn to books for a purpose I didn’t list? I’d love to hear your answers in the comments.