Or perhaps they have other talents. My grandmother never reads, yet she can crochet the most beautiful blankets. Or what about people who don’t like to read books, but just magazines, newspapers, etc? My father does that, and he’s been pretty successful. shrug
(I confess I’m a pretty lousy speller)
An interesting debate I’ve seen is reading vs. watching television or playing video games. Some TV shows and games, especially in the last couple of decades in the US, expect you to pay attention and remember details that become important later on. TV shows that are written like filmed books, and video games that combine choose-your-own-adventure with deep and intricate plots and characters.
I think that shows or games like that can be as rewarding as reading a good book. Shallower games and TV shows can of course be just as rewarding as reading a really lousy book. And sometimes that’s what people want, in either case.
Oh, one minor pet peeve of mine is when someone asks me about a book I am very near the beginning of.
“Whatcha reading?”
“It’s called Whatever The Name Of The Book Is.”
“What’s it about?”
“Dunno yet.”
“How come you don’t know what the book’s about?”
“Haven’t gotten that far yet.”
I’ve lived all over TN. I only experienced book bigotry, while living in the South Nashville projects. Everyone read in the rural area, I grew up in.
Yeah, I grew up in very rural Ohio and reading was very commonplace. The library was always very busy.
My daughter hated to read when she was really young, because she’s dyslexic. I had actually taken her to a psychologist, because she was quite unhappy and depressed about not being able to read as well as her classmates. After she was diagnosed, I took her to a reading tutor, who was able to teach her how to deal with the dyslexia.
I was an avid reader in school, but even I was turned off by some of the required reading. If a kid didn’t KNOW that there were better reading options out there, I’m sure that s/he would never suspect that reading could be enjoyable.
One of the discussions that I had with the in-laws had to do with the fact that I made sure to read to my daughter every day. They thought it was a waste of time, and that she was too old to be read to. I said that as long as she enjoyed it, I’d continue to read to her, even if it was a chapter a night from a kid’s book. And because she was dyslexic, reading was not enjoyable for her, but she did enjoy the stories, and I think she enjoyed the fact that I would make sure to spend some time every night just reading to her, or making up stories for her. In fact, she’s said that some of her favorite memories are when I made up stories when she asked for something about a butterfly, or a cat, or whatever.
In fact, the reason that Lisa tried to read for pleasure was because I would finish a chapter, and tell her that I was done reading to her for the night. Eventually, she decided that she would try to read the next chapter on her own. 
And now she’s a champion reader.
And I still maintain it’s rude to insist that someone come over, supposedly to spend time together, and then expect them to watch Three’s Company instead of, you know, actually talking to them. This wasn’t the first instance of them insisting that I come over and then they’d expect me to just shut up and watch TV, and not just any TV, but junk TV. I was acting in self-defense. My brains were leaking out of my ears. I was willing to talk and be social, but I wasn’t willing to spend four hours on the couch while my brain dissolved. They’d pull this on us two or three times a week. They sneered when I brought over my crocheting to work on during the show, too. If I wasn’t staring at the boob tube in complete slack-jawed absorption with the rest of them, I was a snob.
I think someone on the SDMB pointed out that some of the required reading in high school shouldn’t be reading assignments to begin with, like Shakespeare. Imagine a high school 400 years in the future where kids are forced to read the screenplays for Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction.
Just tonight someone told me that they had found a copy of an out-of-print book that I had recommended (The Jonah Man by Henry Carlisle) and had given it to their sister because they had enjoyed it so much.
Reading and music are critical to culture. Most of what we read, most music we hear, most of the shit we eat, can be dismissed as background. Most of the junk we consume is trash. But when we choose to experience art by reading or by eating or by listening, we are engaging our culture, we are participating in culture. By engaging culture, we propagate it.
The easiest way for anyone to participate in culture is to read. Once you’ve read it, though, you’ve got to talk about it. Talking about what you’ve read does not make you a snob, it makes you a participant in vibrant culture. Opinions about literature, about art, are critical. You become a snob when you become dismissive, when the only opinion that matters is yours.
I was wrong when I said reading is the easiest way to participate in culture. The easiest way is to listen with generosity and respect.
Yeah, if I wasn’t already an avid reader by that point, I never would’ve become one after being forced to slog through The Scarlet Letter in high school. Sheesh.
[quote=“obfusciatrist, post:3, topic:632217”]
Still, I don’t go to a dinner party at a friends house without a book in my jacket in case everybody dies and I have to spend a quiet bit waiting for the police to arrive.
Me too, and I take my kindle to the mall in case the roof collapses and I’m trapped in an air pocket waiting to be rescued.
Now in that case, I might be too busy pocketing the contents of their wallets.
One time I went to the park to walk in the morning and didn’t put my kindle in my purse, 'cause I figured I’d be right back.
After my walk, I saw that my car had an almost-flat tire. I went straight to the tire-fixing place, and all they had to read while I waited an hour was old hunting, outdoorsy, and car magazines. Aagh!
So now I NEVER leave home without my kindle. It has over 150 books on it, and that makes me very happy.
+1.
I travel with both a book and an i-pod. I loaded some white noise cds (ocean waves, forest noises) to dampen the noise of the TV while I read my book. Yes, I get some odd looks from it, but it’s totally worth it not to have to listen to Kathie Lee’s screeching while getting the oil changed in my car.
My go-to “Recharge Myself” activity is sitting in a tiny little coffee joint (out of the way-- important that no one knows I’m there, and no one I know is going to walk in).
With a stack of kids’ books. I just started teaching a tough semester, so this afternoon it’s some comic books and an old copy of The Missing Chums (I gotta find out if they’ll get rescued by Joe and Frank Hardy).
Actually had a conversation with a classmate about this.
I’m in college, and you’d think that reading is, well, essential. Nope.
I always bring a book to class to read before the professor starts, and for during our mini-breaks. Everyone else talks.
So one time this classmate comes over and says ‘why are you so depressed?’ I replied that I’m not, and asked why she had that impression. Her answer?
‘Oh, you’re always sitting alone reading.’
There was another time when my family were watching some typical sitcom on television (fat man has hugely attractive wife) and I got bored and started to read. For weeks afterward I was lectured by my mother on being too ‘anti-social’.
Really, I think reading has come back into ‘fashion’ with all the Kindles and things that are out there. A girl at college once told me the last book she’d read was ‘Sweet Valley High’ when she was fourteen, and now she’s constantly with a Kindle by her side.
They do, but they don’t know it, because they don’t know the meaning of the word.
I know a couple of adults (over 40) who have told me they’ve never read a whole book in their entire lives. 
(I assume they’re not counting little golden books from childhood.)
When I was first traveling in SE Asia, years ago, I was spending more on English language books to read, than on guest houses, especially at the beach!
Back when I was, ‘a pretty young thing’, I was frequently being asked, (as a thinly veiled come on), ‘What are you reading?’ These conversations never went anywhere as I was usually reading something like, “The Buried Treasures Of Chinese Turkistan”, or some other unlikely thing, that would leave them no obvious second line. Awkward silences would ensue.
And what about people who ask you some far fetched thing, only to be shocked you don’t know! After all, ‘You read all the time!’
Oh, God, yes, I get this all the time. I finally came up with the theory that non-readers (“Muggles”) think that reading is so boring that you’re only doing it because you have nothing else to do. So by chatting with you, they’re actually doing you a favor, saving you from boredom so profound that you’re driven to read a book, you poor bastard.
That’s just to remind you of your human inferiority.
Great thread. I find myself hyper aware of this these days. I own an iPad and have a book or two on it. I also have a book with me a lot of the time. When riding a crowded NYC subway, I have two different vibes going on.
I’m reading on my iPod. Very cool, very cutting edge, like a lot of other readers in the car. It mostly makes up for my Motorola Android telephone. 
When I have my paper book with me as I did today on an endless run of subways and buses, I’m quite aware that very few people are reading paper books any more.
Really weird.
I think the definition of an avid reader is someone who looks forward to going home and getting back to the good book they’ve started* (and is out of sorts if things come up and they can’t get back to the book in a timely fashion). 
*Assuming you haven’t brought it to work with you to read during your lunch hour.