A book is not the only form of reading. I could assume that your question pertains to reading books specifically and not the act of reading in general. But even that is grey line. What about short stories? Does the 50k novella The Great Gatsby count as reading a book? If I watch a foreign language film with subtitles on is that reading? If Scott write a 50k word blog post is that reading? Is Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: fan fiction, a long blog post, or a philosophical work? Does reading fan fiction count? Is reading a trashy romance with lots of sex scenes still reading? Comics have words, so reading? News articles? How about the instruction manual for my new phone? What are you defining as reading?
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?
No media is flimsy on it's own. Even the worst work can be great and insightful in the right context. A particular media only becomes seen as flimsy when it becomes predictable and repetitive or is not considered. A great wine drunk without thought is no longer a great wine. A shitty wine drunk with care, attention, and enthusiasm becomes a great wine, no longer flimsy but fabulous.
I've been watching the Monster High movies lately and by regular standards they are terrible movies made to sell merchandise. But they're not all bad and the bits that stick out as well done I take note of and I think about why they work and how do I replicate the same effects in my storytelling. Likewise I see the terrible bits and I learn what not to do. I spend time thinking about how it could have been done better. I watch and read other things too, some much more respected, but I find value in all of it.
Curiosity correlates with intelligence and both of those things do perhaps form a component of what defines being human. Those who are more curious will consume a larger variety of things in general. If Intelligent people read more I think it is partly because they do more things in general. But also I think varity feeds the mind. Knowing other languages changes the way we see the world.
Doing new things promotes new growth, not necessarily always for the better, but always growth. We can direct the growth, so if most people want to be better, whatever that means to them, then exposing themselves to variety will make them so. That includes what others see as flimsy entertainment up until the point that it becomes too well known to ourselves. Of course give it long enough and things can be forgotten or the context changes making the familiar unfamiliar and interesting again.
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Notes -
A book is not the only form of reading. I could assume that your question pertains to reading books specifically and not the act of reading in general. But even that is grey line. What about short stories? Does the 50k novella The Great Gatsby count as reading a book? If I watch a foreign language film with subtitles on is that reading? If Scott write a 50k word blog post is that reading? Is Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: fan fiction, a long blog post, or a philosophical work? Does reading fan fiction count? Is reading a trashy romance with lots of sex scenes still reading? Comics have words, so reading? News articles? How about the instruction manual for my new phone? What are you defining as reading?
No media is flimsy on it's own. Even the worst work can be great and insightful in the right context. A particular media only becomes seen as flimsy when it becomes predictable and repetitive or is not considered. A great wine drunk without thought is no longer a great wine. A shitty wine drunk with care, attention, and enthusiasm becomes a great wine, no longer flimsy but fabulous.
I've been watching the Monster High movies lately and by regular standards they are terrible movies made to sell merchandise. But they're not all bad and the bits that stick out as well done I take note of and I think about why they work and how do I replicate the same effects in my storytelling. Likewise I see the terrible bits and I learn what not to do. I spend time thinking about how it could have been done better. I watch and read other things too, some much more respected, but I find value in all of it.
Curiosity correlates with intelligence and both of those things do perhaps form a component of what defines being human. Those who are more curious will consume a larger variety of things in general. If Intelligent people read more I think it is partly because they do more things in general. But also I think varity feeds the mind. Knowing other languages changes the way we see the world.
Doing new things promotes new growth, not necessarily always for the better, but always growth. We can direct the growth, so if most people want to be better, whatever that means to them, then exposing themselves to variety will make them so. That includes what others see as flimsy entertainment up until the point that it becomes too well known to ourselves. Of course give it long enough and things can be forgotten or the context changes making the familiar unfamiliar and interesting again.
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