This Atlantic article made me wonder about people who brag about not reading books. Do you know many such people? Obviously, some struggle with dyslexia, others prefer different things, there may be issues of class, education, age, language, parental values, access or technology. In recent years authority and expertise has become degraded, certainly many read little. But is bragging about this a commonplace “math class is hard” sorta thing?
During the heights of Covid even dimmer bulbs still seemed to have a bookcase in the background…
Frank Zappa.
In the introduction to his autobiography he wrote,
I don’t want to write a book, but I’m going to do it anyway, because Peter Occhiogrosso is going to help me. He is a writer. He likes books - he even reads them. I think it is good that books still exist, but they make me sleepy.
I cannot go a day without reading.
Me either, but the OP is inquiring about people who can read but don’t read books.
I haven’t read a book in probably five years. Though I would never say I’m “proud” of it.
A family friend started dating a guy and when we met him for the first time, the conversation turned to favorite authors. His response was, “I ain’t much for book readin’.”
I feel like the examples in the article are more like “I’m too smart to read books” or “books are for suckers”, which is more about posturing than literacy. I did laugh at the guy who said “books only tell you what they want you to hear” while talking to an interviewer (and only telling him what he wanted him to hear).
I would disagree with this as a reply to the OP as it’s presented, for two reasons. The first is that I don’t think FZ displays an attitude of “pride” in the sense that he’s saying “Books are worthless, and I’m smart enough to understand that and ignore them, and I’m a better person because of it.”
The second is that I think that in many contexts, FZ was likely as not to sacrifice Truth with a capital T in favor of what he considered a sardonic quip. If he was urging everyone to vote, well, that’s important, and it was real talk. If he was saying books made him sleepy, who cares?
I do think he probably didn’t do much reading, though, mainly because he would have considered that time better spent working on music.
The terminology is interesting. I remember working at a video store (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) and a customer bringing a box to the counter asking me to tell him what a movie was about because “I don’t read.” Which I took to mean he couldn’t.
I can’t think of examples of anyone I know, though I suspect some of my gamer friends haven’t picked up an actual book in ages though they read text on a computer screen all day. When I was a kid, a family we knew had a son who was a hockey fanatic, and I recall being in his bedroom once and being struck by the fact that there wasn’t a bookshelf or even a single book in his room. But I was a voracious reader from the time I was a li’l gaffer and noticed those things early.
Same here, and my kindle is always pointing this out, giving me “awards” for reading every day last week, every day in December, etc. What’s up with the awards?
I have a co-worker who doesn’t read books. She can read - she’s an analyst and spreadsheets and reports are her work. But she couldn’t say the last time she’d read a book. She just wasn’t interested, although she watched TV, so she liked stories. She didn’t despise fiction because it wasn’t true, or anything like that.
StG
I knew one person who hadn’t read a book since high school, their highest degree. I like reading and have an advanced degree. Our annual pay differed by about $70,000.
In the group of guys who I hang with, whom I’ve known since college, who are all college graduates, I am the only one that reads anything on a regular basis.
They aren’t particularly ‘proud’ of the fact that they don’t read books, but they choose to watch TV, mostly sports, for entertainment.
Same. I have a feeling that Dopers as a group, while we may know plenty of people who just aren’t in the habit of reading (since there are a lot of those people around), are less likely to be acquainted with people who actively reject reading for what they consider reasons of principle.
Being actually proud of not reading books, ISTM, puts you somewhat in the “enemy camp” from the viewpoint of fighters against ignorance. We tend not to fraternize with those guys.
I find fiction difficult these days because it seems that so much of it is trying to tell the story in television or movie script form, and not in just storytelling form. I much prefer older books, therefore. However, I do read, and have at least 3 books going at any one time.
Yes, I knew people who bragged of their illiteracy…to their nearest and dearest. They would shut down around those who were well read and educated. However, many of them (all of them, really) are in their graves. They had to leave school early to work on a farm or in a factory. It just wasn’t an option to further your education if you were poor and could earn. If you did not learn to read by 3rd grade, too bad (and quite a number of these people did not go past that year).
I hang out with bookworms, so I am not sure I know anyone who brags that they don’t read. I hear, “I would like to read more, but have no time,” or “I hate to read since I can’t see close up”. We are all in our 60s and 70s. Most of us agree that the fiction of today is lacking. I see there is much fiction that is written for genre, and it takes time to find that novel that tells a story, but isn’t too plot driven, or contains of limited characters, or is too full of cliffhanger moments…etc. I tend to look at the National Book Awards or other such places for books that I like.
My dad’s not a reader beyond the occasional repair manual or cook book, but he’s not proud of it, just self deprecating. When the subject of books come up he usually jokes about how it took him four years to finish Two Years Before the Mast.
My brother–a brilliant man who runs great D&D games and is spectacularly creative–almost never reads fiction. It’s just not how he likes his stories. But he has no beef with them.
I’ll never forget the teenager in one of my college classes for teacher certification. On the first day of the children’s literature class, we each stood up to introduce ourselves and tell one of our favorite books. She stood and said her name, and proudly followed with, “I don’t read any books except the Bible.”
I’ve never been so glad to see someone exit the teacher certification program.
I have a friend who says books are gross (he says a lot of positive things are gross.) He is an intelligent man with extensive experience working for political campaigns, always seems to be up to date on the latest news and analysis, and just generally all around interesting person to talk to. For some reason, he rarely reads books.
The only readers in my family are myself, my grandmother, and my daughter. And grandma is past the point of being able to read and comprehend anything now.
The rest of them aren’t “proud” non-readers, they just don’t get it. And some of them aren’t very good at it.
I had a co-worker (smart guy, great programmer) tell me that he hadn’t read a single book since he graduated college 20 years earlier. He didn’t think this was bad at all.
I have a hard time understanding that. There are books in every room of our house, and bookshelves in the home office, living room and basement because we all read constantly. I’ve been donating books to Goodwill this past year to get rid of some of them because we mostly read Kindle now. But all of us read every day.
My mother, who only had a high school education, was always reading a book. My grandmother had a rural small school education, yet their home had hundreds of books. She knew a lot of things, and it was almost all self-taught from books.
If all you know is what you learned in your formal education, you do not have a good general knowledge set. Doesn’t matter if it’s a masters or a PH.D - those just dive you deeper into one field.
Being educated requires educating yourself, We used to understand that college was there to give you the tools for self-discovery. Today, too many people think college is your ‘education’ and once you are out you are done with that nasty learning stuff.
I’m going to guess that there are very few dopers with that attitude.