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Yeah, it rubs me the wrong way, and I'll admit it might be because I value (perhaps overvalue) reading. Part of what bothers me is that he lumps together all "

Yeah, it rubs me the wrong way, and I'll admit it might be because I value (perhaps overvalue) reading. Part of what bothers me is that he lumps together all "reading" (in his defense, often defenders of reading do the same). If you're reading and not thinking, not asking questions, hell even just not vividly visualizing fiction, then yeah, "reading" won't be much better than TV. And yeah, you can read too much; you can do too much of anything, which is why I feel strongly that the vast majority of people spend too much time consuming media in the form of TV/streaming and Internet, and not enough time reading well researched books/papers and thinking about them. The "reading" I (and I suspect others) would recommend is: 1. Find really good material. 2. Read it deliberately, with an active mind. 3. Act on that material, let it change your life.

handrous 5y ago
> Part of what bothers me is that he lumps together all "reading" (in his defense, often defenders of reading do the same). If you're reading and not thinking, not asking questions, hell even just not vividly visualizing fiction, then yeah, "reading" won't be much better than TV. Oh my god, there a few surer tells that I ought not engage a person in conversation about books than their identifying very publicly as a capital-R Reader. Especially if they're wearing or carrying something with a pro-reading message—"READING IS SEXY", "READ!". I don't get why reading, in particular, is like that. Fans of blockbuster films or Hallmark holiday movies don't go around putting bumper stickers on their car that read "FILM LOVER" or wearing shirts that read "WATCH MORE MOVIES". To be clear, I absolutely and genuinely love all kinds of total garbage in a variety of media and it is entirely fine to enjoy that kind of thing—I just don't get why those become part of an I'm-a-Reader-and-that-matters-a-whole-bunch identity with reading, but not with other things.

handrous 5y ago

> Part of what bothers me is that he lumps together all "reading" (in his defense, often defenders of reading do the same). If you're reading and not thinking, not asking questions, hell even just not vividly visualizing fiction, then yeah, "reading" won't be much better than TV. Oh my god, there a few surer tells that I ought not engage a person in conversation about books than their identifying very publicly as a capital-R Reader. Especially if they're wearing or carrying something with a pro-reading message—"READING IS SEXY", "READ!". I don't get why reading, in particular, is like that. Fans of blockbuster films or Hallmark holiday movies don't go around putting bumper stickers on their car that read "FILM LOVER" or wearing shirts that read "WATCH MORE MOVIES". To be clear, I absolutely and genuinely love all kinds of total garbage in a variety of media and it is entirely fine to enjoy that kind of thing—I just don't get why those become part of an I'm-a-Reader-and-that-matters-a-whole-bunch identity with reading, but not with other things.