My son, who is a voracious reader, mostly of classic literature (he’s a really smart guy), told me recently that there is a tiktok trend going around, complaining about people reading in public, calling them “performative readers.” In other words, they’re not really reading those books, they’re just pretending to read to show off. Now he seems a bit intimidated to be seen reading in public. I told him to ignore the idiots. They’re just people who can barely read, and think everybody is as stupid as them, so they must be faking the reading.
Ironic, because posting TikToks is like the most performative nonsense possible
I really despise these trends of shaming people for just enjoying shit. Good on you for encouraging him to ignore them.
Most adults eventually learn that trying to look cool to the strangers of the world is just too exhausting and not worth the effort. The sooner you learn that, the sooner you can truly relax and just enjoy YOUR life, without caring what anyone else thinks. They can just go fuck themselves, thank you very much.
I think a big part is the switch to audiobooks, I know a lot of my friends have moved almost exclusively to those. It’s a lot easier to listen to a book while cleaning, driving, working out, cooking, etc.
I still read physical books, but I have to set aside time for it, time I could spend doing something else if I was free to just listen to it.
I don’t know how people stay “locked in” to audiobooks. My mind wanders when the text isn’t commanding my attention, and I lose the plot — ESPECIALLY if I’m doing something while I listen.
For anyone in the US that doesn’t know:
-You can sign up for your local public library online.
-Then download Libby or Hoopla.
-You can then check out books, including audio, and comics (I read all of Invincible and The Boys recently).
-They also have Movies, TV, and Music sections but I’m unfamiliar with them.
It’s great and free. More people should use it. Also, physically go to you library if you can. It’s a great resource and they have little clubs and get togethers if you are trying to meet people.
I count myself among the lapsed readers. I grew up as a voracious reader. I was ALWAYS the best reader in school, and always had a book with me. I even preferred to eat alone, so I could read.
Today, I can’t remember the last book that I read with my eyes. I listen to audio books on road trips, but I also mix that up with podcasts and comedy videos.
In some ways, people are reading more than ever, they’re just reading stuff on their phones, just not books.
Since half of Americans are functionally illiterate, how would they read for fun?
I just built a new bookshelf for my home. Solid wood, 8ft tall, 16ft long. I even added a sliding ladder. Its ben my dream to have a bookshelf like this. I laugh at the thought years from now when the house sells again people will look at it and be pissed, like “what the hell am i supposed to do with that?!”
Lol let the uncultured swine worry, I know I’d be thrilled to see something like that because I too have always wanted something like that…
I “read” on “the internet” to “make myself miserable”
It’s a doom-page-turner!
It’s gotten really silly but I’m too invested at this point
Interesting. I made an active choice to read more a few years ago, and now I’m reading more thani ever did before. I’m at 25 books so far this year, averaging over 600k pages each. Although many of those are audio books during my long commute, I’m still getting the stories.
Maybe it’s just me but I lack the free time to get meaningful progress, if I’m lucky maybe 2-3 chapters a week by the time works and housekeeping is done. It often feels unrewarding to need to look back and remember the plot by the time I get back to the book
I loathe sluggish pace reading where I lose the plot inbetween sessions.
I love binge reading a book but rarely can.
I already read a gazillion emails, documents, specs, and whatnot and the same braincells are often cooked.Similarly, I just can’t deal with physical jigsaw anymore. Same braincells used in work-related pattern recognition in troubleshooting, that I find it unsatisfying.
Try audio books. I used to not enjoy them but I’ve come around for similar reasons as you described.
Yes my issue is by the time i have time to read its nearly time to go to bed, and i find having the light on and staying in a comfortable reading position delays my sleep too much unless its something really dense, in which case i don’t end up retaining any of it.
Get yourself a kobo and both of those issues disappear. Also, you get free books if you are willing to sail the high seas, which is nice.
A decade ago I used to go through 3 books a week. Now I might read 3 a year. The world’s gone to such shit that fiction almost feels too quaint to be enjoyable. I know that’s not logical, but it’s how it feels…and it’s awful.
Reclassify doom scrolling as recreational.
I solve problems people.
I’m part of this as well. I read a ton as a kid to the point my parents took away my books as punishment. Gaming definitely did (and does) take up more and more time I could be reading with. But it’s honestly been give and take. Recent games reignited a desire to read sci fi, so I got 3 books into the Dune series and read Neuromancer and some of Gibsons other short stories just this year.
I hope that we see a resurgence similar to vinyl, where physical media gets a revival. I’ll admit, i read quite a few books on my phone. Maybe I’m getting old, but having the actual books is becoming more and more appealing by the day. It might be coming back guys!
I used to burn through books, one Christmas my mum complained that she could’ve got a refund on a book I got if I hadn’t folded a page to keep track of where I was because I finished it by the time we were having dinner. Then school told me I was only allowed to read books from a certain reading level they’d given me for English class, and I had to complete an evaluation test to make sure I’d understood it before I could move up to the next level. I can barely get through 3 pages at a time now because that school program killing my love of reading.
If you’re a SciFi fan, read the expanse series. It’ll reinvigorate your love of reading again. At least, it did for me.
Unless you’re like my friend who read it with me, in which case you’ll finish it. Love it. And then mope about because you can’t find any books quite like it and is even less likely to pick up a book now because it’s not The Expanse.
They jist released the first book in a new series. Mercy of Gods.
He said today he plans to wait until it’s fully out and binge read 🙌🏼
They’ve got a novella in the same universe too!
Livesuit
There are a lot of other good options. While they are not as engaging as the Expanse (in my opinion, YMMV) tell them to check out and the Bobiverse books (starts with We Are Legion) and Murderbot Diaries (starts with All Systems Red). I found both of those very entertaining.
This is the second time I’ve seen Bobiverse mentioned. I might actually have to give it a go.
You can try the Old Man’s War series, The Three-Body Problem series, Children of Time. Lots of great sci-fi out there.
I’m realizing in my adulthood just how much school has hurt my impression of reading.
Throughout most of my life, I was so used to reading something and then having someone else explain it to me, that I never had the confidence to go off and read things on my own.
School sucks. We need a radical redesign
School also really killed my love of reading
I always had a book, sometimes several books, that I was reading on my own, and I read well above my grade level. But my high school went on a really big reading kick while I was there. Basically every class had books assigned to read at one point or another, I think even some of the math classes did. One homeroom period a week was dedicated to SSR (sustained silent reading) where you had to be reading something, you weren’t allowed to do homework, be on the computer, etc.
So they did a really great job of turning reading from something I genuinely really enjoyed to something that was a dreaded chore.
I still read occasionally, but nothing like I used to. Some of that’s being an adult with a busy schedule
But I definitely see plenty of space in my schedule where I could read and just don’t. It’s harder to get myself into the headspace where I want to read anymore.
I almost got myself back on track a few years ago, unfortunately it was just as COVID hit and I had just started reading The Road, which I was really enjoying, but with all of the shortages from supply lines being disrupted it was hitting a little too close to home.
I’m almost back on track now, but I doubt I’ll ever get back to where I was before high school murdered my love of reading.
Yeah, we can tell…
Unfortunately it’s not just a US problem. It’s more of a general issue. People ‘read’ a lot, but generally the wrong things. Like social media. And it’s causing people to lose their ‘reading muscles’ so to speak.
When I first got online in 1995, forum posts were much longer and more insightful. These days you see a lot of ‘tl;dr’ attitudes.
In my opinion, reading is a fundamental part of the human experience and important in people’s general development. Reading needs to be encouraged if possible, enforced if necessary. But there’s a lot of resistance to that.
You can blame things like YouTube for forum posts like that drying up. Why read when I can watch a video? (This does not reflect my opinion, merely the very simple thinking many people employ.)
I dislike how everything is marching to video. I hate watching four paragraphs of information in a 26 minute video.
Just give me the information in a readable format, FFS.
I’m right there with you, it’s lowest common denominator content
You’re not wrong on that thought. But it’s even worse: with TikTok and YouTube Shorts, people aren’t even really seeing proper YouTube videos, just short snippets. God only knows what that’s doing to people’s attention spans, but I doubt it’s good.
I feel like I’m a dying breed: people who can enjoy long form content without needing a dopamine hit every five seconds.
And the algorithm is oushing creators to either do shorts or long content it seems. There are few videos in the 3-10 minute range any more. It’s either 90 seconds or 45 minutes. Most of the shit I want to watch lands in 30-60mins but I don’t have the time to dedicate to them often.
Personally, I’m a really long form guy :D Particularly on technical subjects and/or disasters. For example, ‘Well there’s your problem’ tends to run at least 2, usually closer to 3 hours. And ‘Brick Immortar’ recently put out a 3+ hour video on the SS Marine Electric disaster.
That’s the stuff that really makes me excited. So I definitely support loooong form creators where possible.
can you write a tldr for this pls
Internet bad.
Judging by your president, I think 40% fewer Americans read. For fun or otherwise.
