Have You Read Any Good Books Lately?

Dear Readers,      Have you read any good books lately? Have you read anything lately? A 2007 survey of 17,000 adults in the United States reported that 53% had not read a novel, play, or poem in the previous year. This included all classes of people regardless of sex, race, education, age, income, region of the country, or ethnicity.¹ Many national newspapers are discontinuing publication of print editions because many are no longer reading newspapers.² It seems that one of our most important means of sharing information and learning is being abandoned for methods perceived as faster and more efficient. Why is reading being abandoned? Is reading too boring or too slow? Are electronic methods of texting and sending information in abbreviated languages better than reading the printed word?      Certainly in the field of medicine, if one is not willing to spend a significant amount of time reading books, journals, and other forms of the written word, the chances of staying current in one’s field will be virtually impossible. This is true of wound care. There are numerous textbooks, specialty books, monographs, and journals to be read. I subscribe to and read five wound care journals, yet feel as if I am struggling to stay abreast of what is current. Sure, you can go to a meeting once a year, but even at the best of them, the topics are covered briefly without the detail needed to incorporate the information into one’s wound care practice. How is that information found? By reading.      Downloading articles from the Internet is an excellent method of finding information about a subject, but this quick method is not without its pitfalls. Many online journals will only allow a nonsubscriber to read an abstract of an article. Other online journals will publish any article just as long as the authors pay a fee. There is no peer review and no quality control processes associated with these articles. You have no way of knowing the reliability of the information. Most journals to which one subscribes, including WOUNDS, have an extensive peer-review process to protect the integrity of the information being published. An online version of these journals is just another way to read the information, but care must be used when trying to take shortcuts to get quality reports on any subject.      Underlining important facts is very difficult to do with these online articles. It makes one’s computer screen very messy very quickly. Often articles online are hard to find a second or third time. This makes it difficult to review them later. A hard copy that is in a file is often much easier to retrieve.      I hope all will realize the importance of reading. Read wound care books, monographs, journals, and any information that will enhance your wound care knowledge. There may be other, unrecognized benefits to reading as well. Dr. William      Osler said, “With half an hour’s reading in bed every night as a steady practice, the busiest man can get a fair education before the plasma sets in the periganglionic spaces of his grey cortex.”³ Education is important, and one of the best ways to learn is through reading. What do you plan to read?