Reading, according to some reports, is going downward. In the US, at least.
I kind of have this one issue with reading: it’s seen as some venerable, intellectual skill that only implies that someone is refined and utmost diligent.
And so many people find the idea of reading noble – but boring.
I have to pull teeth to get someone to read if they don’t label themselves a “reader”. They think they’ll not get the work, it’ll go over their head; it’s a waste of time or “reading is for smart people, leave me with my TikTok and let me be”.
Full disclosure, I’m a:
Novelist
Librarian
Bookbinder
Calligrapher
So, yeah, I have a vested interest in the written word.
But the one thing I notice, especially as a librarian, is how people don’t like the idea of reading. That to sit down with a book is so viscerally objectionable that they rather avoid it – but they’ll put down others for being book-allergic, because “reading books” is synonymous with “being smart”.
One is because some people don’t want to sit through reading the “Literary Classics”: Proust, Shakespeare, Orwell, and other super boring White guys that can’t write women, people of color or anything besides other boring White guys worth a lick.
That’s totally understandable. These classics didn’t get this way because they were genuinely good – for example, Shakespeare was considered incredibly low brow for the 1600s and he wasn’t even popular during the time he was alive (because he was low brow for his time), that was Ben Jonson, who wrote “The Alchemist” – it’s because boring White guys who do not read anything but boring White guys thought this set of boring White guys were particularly good. It’s basically a reading list by the Yesteryear versions of Andrew Tate and his ilk. And it got cemented in thanks to structural prejudice that pretty much made people think “Reading is not for me because if I have to read that, I’d rather not read at all.”
Then there’s schooling. They do such an amazing job making sure no one wants to read. They pick super boring books – none of them graphic novels or mangas or comics (I’ll get to that in a minute) – that are just plain outdated for the modern times, and force people to read things that they may or may not understand. It’s double worse for school kids of color and those with learning disabilities (known or unknown), and triple worse for anyone who is a combo of that. You already don’t get to see works from people who look like or sound like you (unless they’re super cherry picked suffera works that basically boils down to “Don’t you wish you were White?” stories), they’re from eras where the English and context are viciously different from what you’re used to, and the stories are usually incredibly insulting and demeaning if you’re not a straight White guy. Bro, making a Black kid suffer through H. P. Lovecraft is just awful – but gods forbid if some White kid has to read Phillis Wheatley and Amos Tutuola, amirite? The books are dry, the meanings are just meandering and the discussions on the books are so cold and vivisecting that if some kid sees a book they like on the reading list, they’re filled with dread because they know they won’t like the book anymore once the class is done with it since it’ll be dissected to shreds. I was an English major, I should know. The only way you could get out of these courses with a half decent grade or better is by not having a single book you like on the list. And even then, the selection of books that were from super White guys made things uber difficult. It’s easy to make someone dislike reading if you constantly give them books that aren’t fun or enjoyable to read. And books that are fun doesn’t have to mean “books that are dumb”. Quite the opposite.
I think the yoke between “reading books” = “sheer intelligence” should be disconnected, at least a little bit.
Books can be for entertainment. Books should be for entertainment. Just like movies. Just like tv shows. Yes, you can learn a lot from a book – but you also can learn a lot from a documentary also. And it isn’t like people don’t like what books can hold – a vast majority of popular media we have right now started from book form, such as Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Kindred, Found, and every movie or show that Marvel & DC has ever made.
Also, comics, mangas and graphic novels are books. They’re in book form, they’re read like books, the end. Reading Maus isn’t any less than reading Night. They’re both very informative in their own right. If I have to sit through a history book, I rather it be in graphic novel form so it’s easier for me to understand exactly how things felt and was perceived during the historical period I am reading through the art. Barefoot Gen, March, They Called Us Enemy and Tiananmen 1984 are outstanding demonstrations of that. Two of my favorite manga series are Samurai Executioner and Lady Snow Blood, which are both set in feudal Japan but the history plays out in the background while you focus on the main story on the page. I, as a librarian, genuinely don’t get it when I hear parents tell me they want their kids to read books but will take away their comics. “I want them to read Plato and Hemmingway!” they’ll say. I usually ask “Do you read Plato and Hemmingway?” and they always answer the same: No.
Then I ask, “Why not? And your kid is reading comics, that’s a book-“
“They need to read real books!” they usually bluster.
“Books that you said you don’t read, right? Why don’t you read them?”
The parent basically has no f#cking clue pretty much of what their kid should read. News Flash: Nine year olds don’t usually want to sit through Tolstoy. Ever. The parent doesn’t even read these books and thus has no idea what is in them (super boring literature, usually. Great for putting a kid to sleep and never wanting to ever pick up another book ever again) but somehow wants their child to be a reader, to grow up smart. By taking away books that would make them like reading and making them read books that would make them hate reading.
How dumb, bro.
My parents were readers and we had bookshelves in our house. I saw my parents read, I was read to and all that jazz. I was allowed to read comics, I watched Sesame Street, which was big on reading. Ditto with Reading Rainbow, Wishbone, Ghostwriter and Between the Lions. In other words, books weren’t seen as this god-awful thing that only “smart” people force themselves through because InTelLecTuALzzzz.
But even I kinda wasn’t always big on reading because of how White it was. How boring the content was (except Bunnicula. Bunnicula is and shall forever be, the greatest that ever is and the greatest that ever was. Bar none. Fite me.) It was just White literature all over the place and while my parents and community made sure I would see Black and Brown and Asian literature, schooling made sure I wouldn’t.
Even now, I get to see this as a librarian. It’s not that people don’t want to read or Ao3, Webtoons and Audible would in be deep trouble – even to be on the internet just to find something to watch, you have to be literate. Comment sections require literacy (even the comments that make you wonder what counts as literacy 🥴). What it is, is that a lot of people don’t want to read books that are dowdy, boring … they would rather read something fun. And since reading is associated with “boring books”, reading is thus seen as “not fun”. I’ve seen people who would say they hate reading … but own at least three different, full-length manga collections. Or will sit through a spindling Reddit comment section or tumblr post 20+ people long.
Because those are fun.
They’re associated with fun so, to them, it doesn’t count as reading, because reading is not fun and therefore, it’s not Reading™.
When I tell people that I’m a librarian, I get a question I actually hate a lot: “What kind of book should I read?”
It’s one thing to ask me that when I’m on the clock, it’s another when I’m not.
My answer is usually the same tho: Whatever you actually would like to read.
And the stupid part? It takes people for an utter loop.
They usually think I’m going to say some super stuffy “Yep, I worked at the Library of Congress and only read the crème de la crème of literature” type answer.
Which is dumb. If you can’t stomach Poe, you can’t stomach Poe. Plain and simple. (Though, if you imagine Usher, the performer, in the tale “The House of Usher”, it does make for a very entertaining read. Also, when I was a kid, I had no idea the two were separated so any visual telling of “The House of Usher” is Illegitimate™ unless I see the actual Usher in the role of his namesake.)
A book is a book, whether its a comic book, a book on tape, an e-reader, whatever. If you like it, it’s good. It doesn’t have to be a portent of intellect, it just has to be something you want to read.
But also, there’s the issue of access to books. When all the options you have thrown at you are White AF or super duper light-skinned/White aspiring/White-coded, it’s easy to just want to drop out of reading altogether. If you don’t see yourself, what’s the point?
I always love telling people about Melanin Library, which is all about books written by Black people and only Black people. The books don’t always have Black characters, because we are a vast group of people, duh, but they are always penned by Black writers. My books are on there as well but I recommend the site overall to everyone because of how much I actually use it to find new things to read. Through Melanin Library, I found Pendulum Heroes by James Beamon and We Are All So Good At Smiling by Amber McBride. I really love those two books and trust, Book Riot nor Locus Magazine were going to ever give them the massive limelight that would have helped these books cross my eyes, Melanin Library did. And, its on the internet, so it is accessible to those who may not have libraries with diverse, sprawling options.
And there’s The Storygraph, which is like GoodReads, but Black-created, Black-owned and actually works. Their byline is “Because Life Is Too Short To Waste On a Book You Don’t Like” and they’re true to form about it. I have found lots of books that genuinely seem interesting to read to me through The Storygraph. And they’re diverse, at that.
In addition, I read webcomics also. I super love Daybreak, which centers two Black characters but is made by an Asian creator, Moosopp, and it’s an amazing story. I like Vibe Check because it’s a great webcomic, especially for Black boys and men. I read Hover Girls by GDBee when it was a webcomic but it’s about to be published into a graphic novel itself soon. I super loved its take on the magical girl genre and while featuring two interested Black girl characters, one who is uber bubbly and the other who is deadly serious (emphasis on the “deadly” bit, she’s good with knives and bats). And the Aztec version of the magical girls genre which I really love a lot, Necahual, made by a Latin creator duo.
Continuing the bit about access with books, there is also the fact it seems a lot of people don’t know that even their phone can turn into an e-reader. If you have an Android phone, the capability is probably already built in via Google Books (which I use) but there’s quite a few apps that can easily convert a phone into an e-reader, for those who do not want to buy an e-reader. Or if they are low on time, there are audiobooks. An audiobook can be listened to as you drive, do low-brain busywork, etc.
And even with that, it’s like pulling teeth to get someone to read. Because of that visceral “Reading Is Bad” that’s pretty much forced into kids at a young age. Their parents don’t read, thus their kids don’t read. The books that are available to read are just plain bad, especially the classics. The idea of reading is depicted as either something for those who are lofty and smart and not for someone to amuse themselves with – because Books Are Not Supposed To Be Amusing/Book Are For Thinking, Not For Fun. It isn’t because people hate stories or movies and shows based on books would fail miserably, it’s the act of reading itself that’s seen as so miserable and awful.
And that, in and of itself, is a problem. Especially since literacy is so important.
But I’ve seen people who don’t know how to introduce anyone into books showcase books that have spines wide enough to double as an impressive block of wood. Y’know, books that have a billion pages no new reader is going to want to sit through. Those books. They’re usually White (or super light skinned) as hell, convoluted as f#ck, and the visual of the thick spine alone is beyond intimidating.
When I suggest something to people who want to get into reading, I usually recommend webcomics because they’re not so long that a new reader would be so intimidated, they’re digital so the person usually can’t see the thickness of the comic (ditto with ebooks, but they can showcase a fearsome page count at times), and they’re visual so the person can ease into reading instead of starting with some dense book that they may not like. In other words: short works are your friend. An audiobook that is an hour long is a good starter point. If you like horror – especially horror not written by White folks – and audiostories that are a bit on the short side, Nightlight Podcast has you covered. They have one of my stories but they also have a bevy of others, all free to listen to and wholly accessible. All in all, short fiction – that is interesting and dynamic because very few in my experience has wanted to sit through Asimov – is your friend. So what if the book isn’t thick enough to double as a short stool? It’s still a book. There are poetry books, like What the Shotgun Said To the Head by Saul Williams and novels in verse (which are novels told through poetry style) such as We Are All So Good At Smiling by Amber McBride.
As far as I’m concerned, reading is reading, even if it isn’t suffering through outdated books with droll stories that are only effective in putting someone to sleep or making them feel so confounded they don’t want to read another thing ever. There are lots to read and there are those who do read but honestly, there’s no point in reading if it’s just treated as a punishment or as something that is the enjoyment equivalent of drinking a rusted can of paint.
By the way, you’re not more noble or smarter than anyone just because you like reading. It’s just reading. Get over yourself.
MultiMind Publishing 
Leave a comment