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User1  3yr ago (text post)   3767 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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First, I disagree with some of your factual claims. When I go to my local library there are plenty of people there, and bookstores are still doing quite well.

But to answer your question: you read because it's fun. There's no great mystery to it. I enjoy reading books that expose me to interesting new ideas, or tell an engaging story. And books do both of those things in ways that other media just can't compete with. For example, a book can pull off the "character2 was actually character1 in disguise" twist without you ever seeing it coming, which is flat out impossible in a visual medium.

My question to you is: why on earth would you not bother reading? Given that lots of people still read, they must be getting something out of it. Haven't you wondered, even once, if you would also get something valuable from the experience of reading a book?

Yeah I don't really like reading either, that other stuff is definitely more entertaining, but it's ultimately useless and a waste of my time. If I want to be of any use thinking about or talking about a topic I need the depth that comes from reading. It forces you to think about it. Audiobooks don't usually work as well, because I can hear what they're saying without thinking about it, plus with reading I can spend the time I want on a thought or a piece of the text where audiobooks/videos just move on.

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