Oops. Me too.
I have re-read Tao Te Ching and parts of Azimov’s Foundation and parts of Vacuum Flowers and small pieces of X-Wing series, so - revisited things.
IDK why reading books is considered such a worthy activity per se, and nobody ever analyses what people read.
If we are going to be honest, most books are mere entertainment and there are also a lot of titles that actually make the reader a worse human being (I am thinking of books about conspiracies, neo-far-right manifestos, and similar waste of paper).
Yeah I agree, reading is very time consuming and a lot of books are not more subtle than any movie or YouTube video. People should just be free to pickup their hobbies as long as they don’t become illiterate (which I don’t think you ca “become”?).
I think you make some interesting points… Content is important.
Although I think there’s such a desperation to get people into the reading habit that anything is considered good enough.
Remember the Harry Potter book when they first came out. I seem to remember a lot of chat about how those books were low effort, but that they encouraged a lot of life-long readers.
I know that here, in the UK, our education system tends to make people resent reading. Furthermore it instills some awful habits… Like feeling you have to finish a book even if you aren’t enjoying it (which usually means you stop reading altogether).
Anyway. That’s a long way of saying I think you are right.
There is something about reading and in particular a story. If you read a text book or manual its different. With a story you visually look at the words and you don’t just take in the words but will also imagine the sound of the voices and the image of the scene and even smells. It sorta activates all parts of your brain in a way nothing else does quite as well. I would say its as valuable or maybe more than doing suduko or crosswords or some other puzzle type thing.
That’s very romantic.
When you say reading "reading “sorta activates all parts of your brain” do you mean in the objective MRI sense or a personal romantic/mystical one?
When you say reading is more valuable than sudoku or crossword (I assume, for senile dementia?), do you say that based on your impression or on clinical data?
its all opinion from my experience.
Is there a reason why the focus is always on books only?
I read technical documentation pretty much every day, I read technical blogposts every other day and news daily.
I read a lot, just not a book.
I’m surprised the lower class peasants are allowed to read in the first place.
Many years ago, I learned that the average household only has five books. Looking at my library of more than ten thousand books, I realized that to reach that average, our family basically deprives a small town of their books. A depressing thought.
That also sounds like you might be depriving a university lecture hall of their square meters lol. 10k books, I dont think I’d have room for 100 even.
Another 50% claim to have read a book.
10% have read a book
Read as “finish from beginning to end” or as “opened and get some paragraphs”?
Example: I’m not a kid anymore and lost interest in fiction literature a long time ago. But I still read technical literature. Of course this kind of books are significantly harder to read (and often there is no need to read them in full) so I don’t think I have read a book in full during the last year.
oh come on. books are so 1900s
I read a ton of memes on tiktok - does that count?
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but listening to audio books isn’t reading.
It is a different sensory experience. It uses different parts of the brain and imagination too.
It is far closer to listening to a radio play.
I’m not saying it is any worse or better, just different.
I’m not sure that conflating the two is useful, particularly when talking about reading habits.
I already spend most of my day reading and writing documents so the idea of reading even more for fun just makes my eyes hurt. I love books but if I can enjoy them in a different format to let them rest then I’d be happy to do so. Audiobooks are a great experience when you’re out for an evening walk or staring at traffic for your commute.
You say it’s an unpopular opinion but the survey results in the linked article suggest that Britain generally agrees with you (52% responded “No, I do not” to the question “Do you consider listening to an audiobook as equivalent to having read that same book?”).
The “yes” option was around somewhat less popular overall (29%).
I say unpopular because those that do think audiobook are “books” tend to be very, very vocal about how wrong I am when I express that opinion… As if I’m somehow undermining their enjoyment or the legitimacy of their consumption.
The 52% on my side are just sat quietly reading books and minding their own business.
This is not an unpopular opinion.
