Justyn Dillingham, the opinions editor of the Arizona University Daily Wildcat, wrote a terrific editorial based on the latest National Endowment for the Arts survey of American reading habits.
The report found that there was a slight drop since 2002 in the number of people reporting that they read books for pleasure. (I have had my disagreements with how the survey is conducted and still think it under-represents the reading public.). Dillingham zeroes in on reading as a solitary habit, a personal experience rather than a public one.
Reading is not like attending a movie, a sporting event, or having a few beers with friends – all things that I like to do. However, finding the leisure time to do these, let alone read, is a growing frustration for me. Being surrounded by books because I work in a library only adds to that frustration.
Life seems to be a series of unconnected distractions. It’s much more difficult to have not only the time but the quiet necessary to read. I love to travel by air since that gives me a block of time just to read. But the distractions and noise!
Dillingham states that America finds reading frivolous even though nearly 70% of college graduates read for pleasure, according to the NEA survey. He says that you probably surf the Web at work but would think twice before you read books at your desk. It’s ok to have the TV on during dinner but it’s certainly taboo to read at the dinner table.
I once saw a man reading a book while eating alone at a restaurant. He certainly seemed quite content and very absorbed in his book. He did not rush through his meal. I find it very difficult to eat alone in public unless I have something to read. I guess that means that if you have a book or a magazine, you’ll never eat alone.
Dillingham really hits his stride when he quotes Harold Bloom’s dictum that reading requires us to “look inward” and we often find that difficult, painful. or unimaginable. Reading fiction, especially, forces us to examine ourselves, our family, our relationships, the world. The fractured time of life and the noise associated with it aren’t conducive to reading for self-examination, says Dillingham.
Take a walk on the wild side for a change. Read a book, think about it, and discuss it with your friends. Hope you still have friends after that advice.
Interesting post, Dean. Have your read Maryanne Wolf? (Proust and the Squid, Harper Perennial, 2007/2008)
As I mentioned in my reply to another one of Justyn Dillingham’s opinion pieces, Google and Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter, texting and the blogosphere (where I seem to have become willfully lost at this very moment): all these are excellent things.
But the reason they are so popular is not, ironically, because we are a society of readers. They are popular because they satisfy our desire for instant access to information, instead of what Wolf calls “time to think beyond.”
I share your frustration with finding time and space to read. I’ve been doing some research lately about various aspects of literacy. In the process, I have begun to accumulate an enormous pile of yet-to-be-read books, articles, and websites that relate to the fact that nobody has time to read. If only I had time to read them.
Actually, I’m going to take a sabbatical soon to do just that. Of course, my institution will also require me to do some writing during my sabbatical. Reading alone, like Dillingham reading at his desk, just won’t cut it.
By: Barry Cull on March 31, 2009
at 6:35 pm