Lael and I are discussing people who readily admit they don’t read and how numerous that group is becoming.
I told him that I’m always shocked when someone admits to me he or she doesn’t read. I know I look positively floored, absolutely flabbergasted. In fact, I’m assuming I probably look like they just admitted to me that they chop up visiting Mormons and keep the pieces in small boxes in the back of their closets.
I know it’s biased, but, to me, there is nothing more revolting than someone saying, “Oh, I don’t read.” Worse than, “Oh, I don’t believe in brushing my teeth” or “I don’t own a speck of deodorant” or “Yeah, I send money to Pat Robertson at least twice a week.”
It makes me shudder.
Lael’s response was, “It really is amazing the number of otherwise intelligent people who choose not to read, though. I’m beginning to think Neil Postman was right; we’re moving toward a post-literate future. We’ll be like old wizards who manage to be able to read the ancient runes.”
So, it’s weird to have a 35-item “to read” list then? It’s strange to search for linguistics books on the Internet? It’s wrong to crack open “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory” in the doctor’s waiting room when everyone else is staring at that insipid health channel or thumbing through two-year-old People magazines? It’s bizarre to choose a good Buddhist tome over the reruns of CBS’ “Eye on America” that permeates the modern airplane adventure?
In fact, airports are really the only place I see people reading anymore, and that number gets smaller and smaller as more and more TVs get put into terminals across the country. They could stare at Reagan’s casket for four hours without ever thinking about cracking a book’s spine.
That doesn’t scare anyone else? Really?
There aren’t the amount of books at garage sales these days either. You can go through whole city-wides and only get a few. Oprah’s done wonders for the book industry—who else could convince so many people to read Steinbeck these days?
Having spent a lot of time in doctors’ offices lately, I can tell you that people aren’t even reading the magazines. I’ve been viewed with interest by my docs because I carry in my own book when I go—that and my docs know I’m an English major/librarian type. I have a feeling my docs are in the minority that still read and that also makes me feel better.
Even as shamelessly addicted to video games as I’ve become, I still read. Even though I don’t always enjoy reading fiction like I used to, I still cozy up to non-fiction books. My problem is that I’m reading newspapers and blogs online all the time which probably will lead to some sort of ADD.
Along these lines, public eading becomes something of a statement, almost something political.
But what does it bode for the future? I can’t even get my students to read the pittance I assign them; it appears an essay of five or more pages is “too long.” And, of course, “long” equals “boring.” Students complain to the academic dean because I don’t use videos in my class. How can they get into college if they aren’t practiced readers?