I Read

I keep hearing people say things like, "I don't read." As in, they don't read books. That's a pretty sad lookout for the world at large, I'm afraid.

I will not be so snobbish as to believe that everyone should read the same ten "great books;" that's tedious in the extreme. Nor do I argue that books are the only things worthwhile to do with your time. I think that people who do hold those views are exactly what is scaring people away from reading in the first place. I just don't understand how you can go through your life not making use of what is arguably the greatest invention in human history: writing.

I love to read. I don't do as much of it as I ought to; I'm busy wasting my time, mostly. And I don't read classics of Western Literature; I read crap, mostly. But I do read, and I love reading.

I guess I don't get it. How can you not read? Reading is great. It doesn't have to be educational, or forced on you. Reading for pleasure... eh, I can't convince anyone anyway.

If you're reading this, you can thank the human brain for the ability to do so. If you're not, how are you consuming it? I exempt the blind (mostly) and people with disabilities who don't read because they can't. But reading is terrific. I've said that more times than I planned to.