When did reading become uncool?

by Kris Neri

Long before I was a writer, I was a reader. I think I was practically born reading. Even before I understood what those marks were on the pages of my picture books, I made up stories that I pretended to read. You could also argue that was writing, so I suppose I was born writing as well. But it was also my way of expressing that, even as a toddler, I understood that reading was something I considered important, and something I wanted to be able to do.

I suppose it helped that my mother was a voracious reader, that I could see that the happiest part of her day was the quiet time she spent with a book. It wasn’t long before that was our shared reading time.

I can’t imagine a life without the pleasure of reading. Sure, I know we all have too little time. I certainly do. I’m a writer with too many day jobs — I own and operate a bookstore, I teach writing, and I edit. Still, while I’m pulled in too many different directions, just as I make time to write, I also make time to read. I breathe, I read.

For a developing writer, reading provides an amazing advantage. In addition to whatever personal pleasure a story provides, every book a newish writer reads also provides so many lessons in writing, which the aspiring writer absorbs unconsciously and effortless.

When I teach writing classes, I always ask my students to include, as a part of their introductions, the authors they read regularly, or the books they’ve enjoyed lately. Mostly, I want to know whether they’re reading contemporary mysteries or they’re more interested in the classics. While there’s plenty to learn from the authors of the crime genre’s Golden Age, it’s absolutely essential that new writers develop a sense of today’s mysteries, so they understand the expectations of modern agents, editors, and readers. Art always reflects its culture, and the crime genre has evolved enormously since the sedate days of the classics. While my job as a writing instructor is certainly to provide them with explicit instruction in the craft of writing, I also see it as my role to direct them to the authors I know they’ll benefit from for implicit instruction.

So, coming from a reading background, you can probably appreciate my shock when I report that increasingly a significant portion of my students insist to me that they have never read and don't intend to. It’s just not something that interests them.

Oh, they’re in the minority of my students — the majority are devoted readers — but the non-readers are a larger and more vocal minority than I would have ever expected.

I don’t get it. This is frankly a hard career. It’s hard to get published, and for too many, it’s hard to stay published today. Writers also have to achieve a publishable standard on their own — while we are edited, writers are no longer leisurely mentored by editors through draft after draft as they were in decades past.

 Why would anyone devote themselves to a difficult-to-learn craft and a difficult-  to-achieve career if they didn’t love the written word? And if they do love the written word, why wouldn’t they read.

If they merely yearn to see their names on a cover, a far easier route would be to simply print their names on some cover design and forget about filling all those pages in between.

I know I’m right about how much reading influences writers. I can always see the differences in the quality of assignments between the readers and non-readers. The quality of the readers’ prose is always more mature, their voices are more lively, as is their dialogue, along with their ability to weave in different types of dramatic beats.

The non-readers, by contrast, will often insist to me that their non-reader friends tell them they don’t need descriptions of places or characters, and they seem to find it annoying when I insist they do. If they read, this wouldn’t come as a surprise to them.

I don’t mind beating a very dead horse, so I expect to keep repeating what I’ve written here for my non-reading students. I even bring in bigger guns to sway them. My favorite quote is one Stephen King wrote in On Writing: “You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.”

Hey, maybe I should just stop reading their assignments.

Comments

[Hedgielib]

And they know what their audience is reading without reading themselves....how, exactly?

[Nikki Strandskov]

As a reader, I can't imagine wanting to read anything by someone who doesn't read.

[Lynn/MI]

I have noticed that a lot of the new authors books I've been reading will never last probably 8-10 years just because they write like they tweet and most readers won't have a clue as to what they're saying!

[lil Gluckstern]

Sadly, they (non-readers) are looking to be the next E.L. James and their books will sshow it. I am getting pickier as I get older, and I love reading books by authors who show they've read some great things by other authors. You must be a dynamite teacher!

[Charlaine Harris]

No, you're right, Kris. I don't know how on earth people who want to write don't want to read. To me, they're sides of the same coin. I actually doubt the sincerity of writers who don't read.

[Kate Adams]

Why would people want to write mysteries if they don't love mysteries, and how would they learn to love them if they don't read them? And if they're in it not for love but for money, you'd think they'd want at least to be good at their craft. How do you know you're any good if you don't compare your work to that of others in the same field?

[Deb Romano]

This is just so bizarre, Kris. I love to read; it is as necessary to me as breathing. I can't imagine aspiring writers who do not read. Why do they want to write? Can you imagine going to a doctor who despises sick people?

[Dean James]

I can't imagine wanting to spend time in the world of a writer who doesn't like to read. How much imagination can a non-reader have? Imagination is fed by reading -- at least the kind of imagination that I want to experience. Otherwise, it must be a rather poverty-stricken place, bereft of ideas that have anything to offer me.

[Peggy Burdick]

What could they possibly have to say if their imaginations have never been expanded by the minds of others? Knowing what I do know is the product of being exposed to the thoughts, beliefs and dreams of others, then weighing their ideas against mine and coming out the other side with a multidimensional view point. Not reading makes for a single-note composition - not worth listening to.

[Brenda]

I presume these are your F students or are these the type who read just enough to pass? I don't think they belong in a writing class until they can prove they can read and understand.

It might be good for them to hear what Peggy Burdick said, "What could they possibly have to say...?" Certainly nothing I will pay for. I take a certain emphatic attitude toward the belligerent nonreaders as I call them -- THEY ARE THE ONES WHO ARE UN-COOL AND NEED TO BE TOLD THIS EARLY AND OFTEN BY ALL OF US!!!!!!!! What rotten parents they clearly had who told them they could be anything without in any way guiding them to be anything at all! But at least they are in your class (briefly?) so you can help socialize them into human beings and show them the enjoyment of reading.

They simply are not writer material until and unless they read and if they are in a writing class they don't belong there as they are taking up space that many a talented aspiring writer needs in my opinion. I mean if they aren't F students what other polite word are they?

Thanks for your most interesting post.

[krisneri]

Thank you all -- I agree entirely. You're right, if they don't read, how do they know what readers want. But -- if I can switch hats, to use an overworked cliche -- when I'm in my bookseller capacity, I see this all the time, as I'm sure other booksellers do as well. People who've never read a book, and who therefore don't know the way books are even traditionally formatted, print their books and they predict their books will have great sales, and they're shocked when nobody at all buys their books. If someone doesn't read, they don't know what books work.

[krisneri]

Lil, thanks! I'm a pretty good teacher, according to my students:
http://www.krisneri.com/class-endorsements.html :)

[krisneri]

Charlaine, maybe it is all just a game they're playing.

Deb, what a great analogy!

[krisneri]

Dean & Peggy, you're absolutely right.

[krisneri]

Brenda, a lot of them don't read the lectures I post either! In online classes, lots of instructors now make video lectures. But I believe if people want to write, then they better be prepared to read, so my lectures aren't podcasts, they're written. I can tell lots of them don't read the lectures either because try to guess what I want them to do without reading the lectures. ::Sigh::