Want to change the world? Come to where the readers are

Why do books and reading matter in a world where AI can seemingly do everything for us, in the blink of an eye?

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Well, it turns out reading matters in some surprising ways. Researchers have found that just 30 minutes of reading a day can lower blood pressure, heart rate and feelings of psychological distress. Other research has found that regular readers have lower levels of loneliness and are less likely to experience depression. One study even found that people who read books for 30 minutes a day had a 20 per cent reduction in mortality compared with those who didn't read.

But I think reading matters even more to us as a society than it does to us as individuals.

Rhian Williams. Picture supplied

Books allow us to experience lives that may be completely different from our own. This can make us more tolerant, open and empathetic - great qualities for a kinder, more connected and compassionate society. Deep reading also asks us to concentrate on complex ideas rather than reacting to the short, sensational fragments that increasingly fill our screens.

And now that AI can give us information and answers almost instantly, we need the intellectual and emotional stretch books give our minds.

Because AI can't decide for us what is worth caring about. It can't replace the experience of sitting with a complex idea, seeing the world through someone else's eyes and allowing our thinking to change. All of which matters if we want a more informed, thoughtful and engaged citizenry.

Besides, books can do something really extraordinary. They can change what we think we know - and what we think is possible.

Think Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which brought the environmental and health consequences of widespread pesticide use into public view. It galvanised the environmental movement and contributed to the political momentum that led President Nixon to create the US Environmental Protection Agency - a model that then spread throughout the world.

Think Henry Reynolds' The Other Side of the Frontier, which challenged the idea that European settlement of Australia had been largely peaceful. It helped undermine the assumptions behind terra nullius, contributing to a broader shift in historical understanding that was reflected in the landmark Mabo decision in 1992.

Books for children have a proud place in changing the way we see the world too, and in reminding young readers that their voices matter.

Think Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl, which humanised the Holocaust for generations, making history personal and unforgettable. Or Dr Seuss's The Lorax, a story about environmental destruction that inspired generations of children - and the adults who read it to them - to think differently about consumption and protecting nature.

Or, closer to home, think John Marsden and Shaun Tan's The Rabbits, which explores Australia's history of colonisation and the devastating consequences of dispossession. It asks young readers to look again at the story we tell about our country, and to imagine - and feel - why the way we tell that story, and which stories get told, matters.

That's one of the great powers of reading. A book can take something we thought we understood and turn it around in our hands, our minds and our hearts. Books matter. Reading them can change us. And sometimes, that can change the world.

Which is why I think we should pay more attention to places where books are not just read, but shared. Places where writers and readers can meet. Where children can discover books they might never otherwise pick up. Where adults can hear an argument they haven't considered. Where people who disagree can sit in the same room and listen - and then, perhaps, discover what they have in common.

So if you want to change the world, perhaps you should come to where the readers are.

• Rhiân Williams is a Canberra picture book author and passionate advocate for books, reading and children's literature. Her book Emergency! Emergency! Vehicles to the Rescue was selected by Guardian Australia readers as one of the nation's Top 50 Children's Picture Books. Her most recent book, One Little Dung Beetle, was a 2025 CBCA Honour Book. In 2026, she is inaugural Guest Creative Director of the Kids & YA Program at the Canberra Writers Festival.

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