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User1  3yr ago (text post)   3785 thread views

Why Read?

I have never read a book in my life. I might as well be illiterate, and most people around me might as well be too. Most libraries are vacant, and bookstores are gone. But all these people are doing fine - we put anything down on paper, and despite its incoherence it seems fine by standards that have stooped for reasons I do not know. I can turn in something that makes absolutely no sense, and an instructor from a decent school will tell me that he enjoyed it. Or an instructor won’t enjoy it, but since most people don’t write anything comprehensible anymore I’ll still be fine. I can cruise through my education and get a job while barely having read much at all. Everyone frequents some variant of flimsy entertainment - cable news, cartoons, social media - so why bother trying to read anything worthwhile anyways if nobody else is? Does reading actually make you more curious, more intelligent, more human?

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Can you clarify what you mean by read? Presumably you can read this comment. Reading fiction or nonfictions books in particular is probably not something every or even most people need to do regularly, other things like news columns, blog posts or other forms of content can substitute for the most part. I will say you're probably missing out on some perspectives that don't fit into such small windows.

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