40% of Britons haven’t read a single book in the last 12 months
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You say it's an unpopular opinion but the survey results in the linked article suggest that Britain generally agrees with you (52% responded "No, I do not" to the question "Do you consider listening to an audiobook as equivalent to having read that same book?").
The "yes" option was around somewhat less popular overall (29%).
I say unpopular because those that do think audiobook are "books" tend to be very, very vocal about how wrong I am when I express that opinion... As if I'm somehow undermining their enjoyment or the legitimacy of their consumption.
The 52% on my side are just sat quietly reading books and minding their own business.
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IDK why reading books is considered such a worthy activity per se, and nobody ever analyses what people read.
If we are going to be honest, most books are mere entertainment and there are also a lot of titles that actually make the reader a worse human being (I am thinking of books about conspiracies, neo-far-right manifestos, and similar waste of paper).
There is something about reading and in particular a story. If you read a text book or manual its different. With a story you visually look at the words and you don't just take in the words but will also imagine the sound of the voices and the image of the scene and even smells. It sorta activates all parts of your brain in a way nothing else does quite as well. I would say its as valuable or maybe more than doing suduko or crosswords or some other puzzle type thing.
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I would blame the Big Tech social networks. My mom uses Instagram all the time and always claims she is getting "a lot of information". I think that's to blame. But also reading books isn't something you force into people, it will make them hate it. It's just a hobby, either you do it or you don't. It makes people dumb? Ok. But you can't force soul-searching (or any other reason to read a book) into someone.
I think that maybe events and other gatherings for readers would be good, people who are searching for something to fill their emptyness but don't know what yet may get into books (or any other thing).
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I would blame the Big Tech social networks. My mom uses Instagram all the time and always claims she is getting "a lot of information". I think that's to blame. But also reading books isn't something you force into people, it will make them hate it. It's just a hobby, either you do it or you don't. It makes people dumb? Ok. But you can't force soul-searching (or any other reason to read a book) into someone.
I think that maybe events and other gatherings for readers would be good, people who are searching for something to fill their emptyness but don't know what yet may get into books (or any other thing).
I also think that reading "A Vampire in my room" with a sexy Chad on the cover isn't much better than using Instagram, so...
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I'm surprised the lower class peasants are allowed to read in the first place.
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There is something about reading and in particular a story. If you read a text book or manual its different. With a story you visually look at the words and you don't just take in the words but will also imagine the sound of the voices and the image of the scene and even smells. It sorta activates all parts of your brain in a way nothing else does quite as well. I would say its as valuable or maybe more than doing suduko or crosswords or some other puzzle type thing.
That's very romantic.
When you say reading "reading "sorta activates all parts of your brain" do you mean in the objective MRI sense or a personal romantic/mystical one?
When you say reading is more valuable than sudoku or crossword (I assume, for senile dementia?), do you say that based on your impression or on clinical data?
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I think you make some interesting points... Content is important.
Although I think there's such a desperation to get people into the reading habit that anything is considered good enough.
Remember the Harry Potter book when they first came out. I seem to remember a lot of chat about how those books were low effort, but that they encouraged a lot of life-long readers.
I know that here, in the UK, our education system tends to make people resent reading. Furthermore it instills some awful habits... Like feeling you have to finish a book even if you aren't enjoying it (which usually means you stop reading altogether).
Anyway. That's a long way of saying I think you are right.
Here too (Italy) the education system makes a pretty terrible job at teaching the joys of reading (or those of music, maths, and... pretty much anything to be honest).
Maybe that's why people love soccer so much... because they have not been properly taught to like other things?
I've been told by people who live in the US (California, IDK if it's the same elsewhere) that kids have reading periods at school where the class is silent and each kid sits by their own and reads whatever book they please.
It made me chuckle at first, but then I started wondering if that could work better than assigning books to read at home and report on like they do here.
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oh come on. books are so 1900s
I read a ton of memes on tiktok - does that count?
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IDK why reading books is considered such a worthy activity per se, and nobody ever analyses what people read.
If we are going to be honest, most books are mere entertainment and there are also a lot of titles that actually make the reader a worse human being (I am thinking of books about conspiracies, neo-far-right manifestos, and similar waste of paper).
Yeah I agree, reading is very time consuming and a lot of books are not more subtle than any movie or YouTube video. People should just be free to pickup their hobbies as long as they don't become illiterate (which I don't think you ca "become"?).
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Oops. Me too.
I have re-read Tao Te Ching and parts of Azimov's Foundation and parts of Vacuum Flowers and small pieces of X-Wing series, so - revisited things.
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