One of the key aspects of reading — and why I think the decline of reading is so alarming — is that reading helps to create greater empathy toward people and society. When you read, you absorb occurrences you would not — in your everyday life — deal with.

Reading fiction is a key way we learn how to experiment with people, places, and perplexity that we might otherwise never experience. When you are reading about experiences you might, in fact, confront, you gain even more. I’m not referencing stories that are composed in order to teach a moral lesson, but tales that have — as all good stories have — real dilemmas.

As a young reader once wrote to me, a good story “has a beginning, a muddle, and an end.” It is that muddle that is so crucial: how does one deal with it? 

-Avi, "In Praise of Muddles," https://avi-writer.com/blog, Feb 3, 2026