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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
We’ll just have to rack up a huge phone bill. At least the proceeds from selling my books will help with that.