Why I Read
Why do I read? Well, I read for pleasure. Need I say more? I suppose that’s the task, isn’t it? Alright, let me say more.1
After giving it some thought, I have divided the idea of “literary pleasure”2 into four categories: visceral (let me explain), intellectual, aesthetic, and cathartic.
I’ll begin with the visceral. First and foremost, I read because I enjoy it. And yes, this “enjoyment” varies and is varied. At times, it is pure mindlessness. I will happily indulge in a plot-driven, formulaic detective story, will gladly lose myself in a well-built fantasy world. Willingly will I dangle from the edge of metaphorical cliff, speed-turn the pages of fast-paced thriller, hold my breath in suspense, my quickening heartbeat betraying my supposed calm.3 In other words, I enjoy being titillated. And because I don’t often read Romance novels, my visceral enjoyment ends there…
As for the intellectual, this is the literature that makes me think. And this is not solely “high-brow” prose, but writing that teaches me something I hadn’t previously considered or known. To paraphrase Rudine Sims Bishop, great literature is either a window or a mirror in which you either see yourself or others.4 It is through literature that I learn what the world has to offer, about cultures I am otherwise ignorant of, about race and identity, about emotions in their purest, most distilled and concentrated forms.
To be fair, this is often high-brow literature. It is challenging literature - but isn’t that the point? As I often tell my students: if it’s easy, you’re not learning. And I try to remember this as I tackle the weightiest tomes of the canon.5
Then there’s the aesthetic, which, wonderfully, often overlaps with the intellectual. Here is the prose - and often poetry - of beauty. An elegiac description, a telling detail, a witty turn of phrase, a moment of intense or fleeting pathos. This is the category to which “great writing” is often ascribed:6 the ability to use words to paint pictures, to convey feeling, to elucidate, through language, the deepest and murkiest corners of humanity. In other words, this is enjoying writing for writing’s sake.
And finally, catharsis. Because really, reading is just good for the soul (define that how you will), especially juxtaposed against its antithesis: technology. The majority of people reading this go to sleep every night with their head one foot from a small, rectangular device on/in which exists the goings-on of your dearest friends and your favorite celebrities, the latest trends fed to your at warp speed, and, essentially, all the known information in the universe (and we wonder why we’re so stressed out). For book readers, the cell phone is the true anti-hero.7 It is symbolic of the tech that is getting closer and closer to us (figurative and literally) with each passing day.
But this is nothing new. We all know it - we all live it.8 So why do I read? I read because, while reading, I can let go of all of it. To read is to rest - to be at rest. It is to lose yourself to the page and to the story, but not to the present. I read at night - every night - before falling asleep. And every day I look forward to this time, even if I’m not always consciously thinking about it. I look forward to the comfort of my bed (after having read my daughter stories - another important form of reading!), to being beside my wife (who also reads), and to feeling myself unwind and unknot. To knowing that after a certain number of pages - sometimes ten, sometimes fifty - my eyes will become heavy and I will sleep soundly, recharging like the silenced and unchecked phone beside me.
One last note: I also read for teaching. In designed my curricula - especially for AP Lit - I am constantly reading and re-reading texts that I think would resonate with my students. I’m fortunate to have freedom in which texts I choose (not all teachers are so lucky), and even more fortunate that I generally know who I’ll be teaching and can somewhat customize the curriculum towards those students. This has less to do with the “identities” of the students and more to do with their personalities. With each passing year, I have found that I get to know the generation a little better, and one of my favorite parts of teaching is trying to construct a “perfect” year of reading, one that will both engage them and expose them to a wide variety of great literature.9 To do this, I have dive into the texts myself. And people wonder why I love my job.
This is why I read - why do you?
Thanks for reading! Until next time…
I’m going to go full David Foster Wallace on you with these footnotes. Sorry in advance.
I recognize the relative skeevy-ness of this term, but at this point, I’m leaning into it.
These are the moments when my wife is usually telling me to turn the light off and go to bed. Or that I’m “reading too loudly.” Yes, you read that right.
Yes, this is from where the title of the Stack comes from
Which I believe is ever-changing and consists of more than just dead white men.
Yes, being descriptive and poetic takes skill, but it pales in comparison to the skill of crafting compelling narratives, creating sympathetic characters, or exploring the myriad quandaries of human existence.
“It’s me. Hi! I’m the problem - it’s me!” (Swift, Taylor, “Anti-Hero”)
Even our reading has been sped up: we can now listen at 2x speed, can “turn” a Kindle page with a mere touch of a thumb. If we want a book, it can be downloaded. We can find the PDF online (usually). Someone on YouTube has probably recorded themselves reading it, which we can listen to on our phones.
I’ve yet to do this, but the challenge is part of the fun