The Writer Who Forgot How to Read
Is it because our brains aren't hardwired to read anymore or is it because there are no more good stories?
When was the last time you read a book? Like a full book, start to finish?
Are you the type of reader who can only read one book at a time and can’t even think about reading anything, let alone the back of a cereal box, before you finish?
Do you read ten at once or have you not picked up a book since that one you pretended you were going to read in the early days of COVID?
Or, are you like me? Do you look up the plot of a really intriguing book online and read the recap like you do TV shows and movies that you don’t have the energy or mental stamina to invest the ten hours in. It’s the toxic trait I will never give up, because after all - I love a good story. I want to consume as many good stories as possible.
Like most adults who say they like reading, I used to spend my younger years voraciously reading. After all, what else was I supposed to do? “Building a Tik Tok brand” didn’t exist in the vernacular yet and there was no such thing as being child Youtuber who could make $50,000 a video playing with toys.
The endless scroll of Instagram Reels used to be the endless turning of pages of a book. I would come home from the library with the maximum books allowed (12) and be back in two weeks to get my new dozen. My reading verged on competitive. I won a reading competition in middle school and my parents had to buy two books of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix because otherwise, fistfights would have broken out between me and my siblings.
However, like most adults who used to read a lot, I do not read a lot books anymore. I read newsletters, sure, and the New York Times twitter feed and think pieces about cultural moments that will have zigzagging repercussions for years to come. But books? Hardly. I like to blame my 9-5 job and getting a master’s degree for my inability to complete a novel as of late. I also like to blame the internet. The book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, by Nicholas G. Carr describes in greater, more scientific detail how the internet has absolutely obliterated our ability to complete any type of long-form reading.
At least that was what was discussed in the first third of the book.
I’ll admit. I didn’t finish it.
But I think there is a far greater culprit to blame.
Are there no more good stories out there?
Let me clarify. Yes, there are tons of good stories out there. Yes, (some of ) the classics are incredible and the books Reese Witherspoon picks are fun books to read along to in your free time.
But I mean the stories that you can absolutely tear through, stories that you physically cannot put down, raw stories that leave you feeling changed in some visible, permanent way after reading.
The last book I remember reading in full was in the fall of 2020. It was the paper manuscript of a friend of a friend from high school. It was phenomenal, haunting, made my fingers vibrate, and I finished it in one sitting. Even when I accidentally glanced at the end and saw a major spoiler, I still ripped through it, needing to devour just exactly how the main character ended up in that position. Once completed, it felt like someone actually punched me in the gut. It echoed inside my head for days following, a feeling that I missed deeply from my younger days.
Some books are worth savoring piece by piece and letting the scenes and characters wash over your life slowly, but I think the most exciting ones are the ones that you let rip you open and devour you whole.
What was the last book that you ripped through? Drop it in the comments. I need a good story.
The hunger games series!!
The hunger games series!