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I earnestly believe that literature is the single most overlooked part of a well-rounded education. As students, we read books in our middle and high school classrooms and have fairly moderated and uninspired discussions. However, in college, the idea of a required reading is straying farther and farther away from a thick, dense novel towards short-form content (i.e. magazines, short journals, etc.). The issue with this is twofold: it not only continues to shorten the attention span but also hardly lets the brain grapple with a long and sustained metaphor.

All literature has merit, no doubt. I will be the first to attest by plays (Athol Fugard, Bernard Shaw, and Sartre come to mind as some brilliant playwrights) and essays (see “An Image of Africa” by Chinua Achebe). When you read a novel, however, different chemicals fire overnight in the brain and let you process a theme on a much more nuanced level. All of a sudden, you deal with timelines and force the brain to iterate over what it has already read.

The most common reason I hear from peers regarding the idea, or lack thereof, of reading a novel is either that it will take too much time or that they have never been a reader. I'll debunk these both briefly:
1.) Yes, novels take time. They're worth time. An author sat there for (to put it asymptotically) at least N^4 the amount of time to write it than you'll take reading it. For that fact alone, that someone dedicated their life to this, means that perhaps there is something worth your time. As a human being I'm often oversubscribed and find it hard to make time to do things. Working a novel into my daily routine right before I sleep, however, has singularly led to me sleeping better, thinking more critically about the world around me, and being inspired in a million ways. There's no perfect answer to the value proposition until you try it yourself. Spend some time and read a book – the time will make its way back to you faster than you can blink.
2.) I feel less qualified to answer this qualm because I have always considered myself an avid reader, but I'll give my best answer. James Clear, the famous and oft-quoted writer of Atomic Habits, talks about the power of mentality. Specifically paraphrased, there exists a pronounced difference in saying "I am not a _________" versus saying "I haven't ______ much." In this case, there's a stark difference between claiming to not be a reader and admitting to not have read much. If you get out of the mindset that for some reason you're not able to read, I can assure you it'll work its way in. Our libraries are some of the most beautiful and serene places in America, devoid of political and social issues. If you haven't stepped foot in a library since the fourth grade, please do. I promise you won't regret it.