> 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,

> 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.