“So, what’s your favorite book?” so-and-so asks me when they find out I like to read.
“Oh, I just can’t choose,” I say, “There are too many good books! How about you?”
“Oh I don’t really like reading.”
I’ve had this conversation with many people over the course of what you could call my “reading life” (my life since I’ve started reading), and it never ceases to amaze me when people reply to my question with this answer.
Reading, I think, is the foundation of civilization. Writing and language are so important; without them we wouldn’t be carrying on the way we do today. People wouldn’t have had news to read when the American Revolution was one, religion wouldn’t be as widespread without texts such as the Bible, Torah, and Quran to spread faith. Learning how to read was seen as something of a privilege, and people such as Frederick Douglass revered for teaching themselves how to read while being at a huge disadvantage in life.
This brings me to my following opinion: When people tell me they don’t like to read, I am disappointed in them.
I am disappointed that someone who has had the privilege of having an education doesn’t take advantage of the skill that so many other people in the world only dreamed they had. I am disappointed that in all the possible things there are to read in the world, there isn’t one thing that intrigues them to want to read more of it. And what I am most disappointed about is that some people are too stubborn to take a shot at it, to at least try to find something that they will like when it comes to reading.
This all sounds very judge-y, I’m sure, but I’m the type of person that believes in the saying “If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book,” (said by the fantastic J.K. Rowling). I believe in this so much that I don’t care what it is your reading, as long as you are reading.
Whether it be an academic journal, a newspaper, a science fiction novel, or even, for goodness sake, one of those romantic novels with Fabio on the cover, I don't care. What I do care about, and what I’m sure many other avid readers care about as well, is that you’re taking full advantage of your ability to read. Go ahead and hate your assigned reading for class, but at least be able to appreciate that you know how to read it and, at the end of the day, that you learned something from it.
There are thousands of people around the world who fight and struggle for an education and kids who travel for hours every day to go to school because their home is in some remote part of their country. They appreciate their education because maybe their parents didn’t get it, or maybe because if they were in another country, they would be killed if they were caught reading something that the government wouldn’t approve of. It's important to keep this in mind every day and even more important to think about the next time you say you don’t like reading.
My overall point is this: People who don’t like to read, expand your horizons and try to find that one thing you will like, because otherwise, your opportunity to discover something great and something you can benefit from may be truly wasted.
