# Could you give up reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 8, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354 "2011-07-08T21:40:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/21 "2011-07-09T10:11:11Z")
As some others have said: I’m not sure if I could do it, but I’d really, really try. I’d probably have to spend most of my life blindfolded to avoid slipping up. I certainly couldn’t do it for any lesser reason than saving the life of a loved one. There’s a particularly cruel irony in my case, since I’m in a long distance relationship with the first person who popped into my head when I read “person it would pain you most to lose”. If I want her to live, I can never read an email from her again. ☹ We’ll just have to rack up a huge phone bill. At least the proceeds from selling my books will help with that. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/22 "2011-07-09T11:01:44Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > I would try really hard, but short of blinding myself, I’m rather positive I would slip up at some point and accidentally read the back of some container for non-instructional purposes. I really would have to go around with a blindfold or poke my eyes out. If we were back in the dark ages where ‘reading for pleasure’ meant books and magazines, it might, just _might_, be doable. But even then it would be a challenge to explain to the Firebug why Daddy can’t read to him anymore. But now, when a lot of the recreational reading I do is on the Web, where exactly is the line between reading stuff on the Web for informational purposes v. for pleasure? And even if you could draw that line…I’d be at Weather Underground to see what weather was headed our way, and then I’d click on a link to see what this year’s hurricane season was shaping up to be, even though no hurricane was headed our way - OOPS! Reading for pleasure! Firebug dead. Or how about email? A family member sends you a chatty email, you open it, oops, kid dead. Reading the Dope, of course, would be right out. Ditto Facebook, Livejournal, and all that. You’d really have to pull the plug on your Web access. And forget texting - suppose someone sent you a funny text message? Kid dead yet again! It would be nearly impossible for me to evade all opportunities to accidentally read for pleasure for even a short time. I’d really have to kill myself to save the Firebug, otherwise I’d live in perpetual fear of killing him by reading. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/23 "2011-07-09T20:23:05Z")
Well, no kids. If evil person threatened my mom, I’d try, but once she goes, I’d read no matter who was threatened. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/24 "2011-07-09T20:38:09Z")
> [@carlotta](#): > > Because these powers, they are evil. Well, why are you setting up such a dichotomy in the first place? Do you work for them? ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/25 "2011-07-09T21:12:09Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Seriously, when I was a kid, my parents punished me by grounding me from recreational reading. My god, a whole board full of us! ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/26 "2011-07-09T21:33:48Z")
> [@carlotta](#): > > Because these powers, they are evil. Well, I’m not in the habbit of reading audio books anyway. I like to listen to mine. 😛 What about subtitles in movies? Can I do that? ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/27 "2011-07-09T22:53:57Z")
I’d be planning an assassination. Then, after I’ve put all the corpses into a pile, I’d sit down on top of them and read a nice book. Um…guess the answer’s “no,” then. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/28 "2011-07-09T23:23:37Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Well, why are you setting up such a dichotomy in the first place? Do you work for them? Nah, I just read too many Skald the Rhymer’s threads and _pop!_ there was my own dastardly hypothetical. Maybe he works for them. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/29 "2011-07-09T23:31:44Z")
Like others, I’d do it for my other half but I would become severely depressed. I’ve been reading as long as I can remember and even now when I go without for a few days I feel an urge to pick something up and read it. It depresses me a little even to think about it! ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/30 "2011-07-10T02:40:36Z")
I essentially gave up reading books/magazines/newspapers/comics for pleasure (as well as other long-term hobbies, like video games, going to movie theaters, attending plays) for several years once I decided to go to school and juggle two jobs. The only book reading I did was for school (though, luckily, some classes provided pleasurable reading materials) or work, which I think fits the “allowable reading” clause in the OP’s hypothetical. Note that I’m not mentioning internet usage here; I did sneak that in. Absolutely hated the situation, and I really did get depressed about it. I feel like I’ve lost a part of myself, even now. But I did it. Given that, if I had kids, I think they’d be even more of a priority than getting degrees, and I would be able to make the effort, and I’d be able to extend the ban on reading to online. It’d kill me, but I think I could do it. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/31 "2011-07-10T02:42:23Z")
As an afterthought, if reading for school is allowed, it might be a good excuse to go back and major in English literature! ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354/32 "2011-07-11T16:15:20Z")
I have kids. So the question is: how well have they been behaving lately? :D. More seriously: I’d have a massively hard time with this. If it truly were to mean the death of the kids, I’d give it a pretty good try though, I guess. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-give-up-reading/588354.md?page=1)