Is It Necessary to Read Anymore?

"I don't read that much these days. I am lucky now if I read one novel a month. I am ashamed to admit that my current book has been open for six weeks. This isn't me. I am a lifelong devoted reader: the kid who hauled home a bicycle basket full of books from the public library every Saturday, and the teenager who found solace in reading myself into other lives."

"Instead of reading, I am watching a movie every night with my spouse. I am propped up on pillows with my gaze latched onto a screen. This watching requires almost nothing of me. I slide easily into the spectacle and get carried forward, streaming along, jostled here and there wherever the story takes me. Moreover, I look forward to it every night. The two of us love doing this together. Our abandoned books are secondary, separate adventures."

"When I do finally pick up one of them, reading startles me into feeling participatory, active, far more co-creative than those movies. My hand turning the pages is a visceral pleasure. I love the feeling of the paper against my fingers and the satisfaction of progress as pages pile up on the left side and dwindle on the right. Putting myself into the characters, visualizing their surroundings and smelling their odors, comes from my interior, my own experience,"

A lifelong devoted reader now reads far less, sometimes only one novel a month, leaving books open for weeks. Books once provided solace and enabled empathy by allowing the reader to see through another person's eyes. Nightly movie-watching with a spouse has become the regular activity, offering low-effort, shared entertainment that requires minimal participation. Watching slides the viewer into passive spectacle, while reading demands imaginative co-creation and sensory involvement. Physical interactions with books — turning pages, feeling paper, and observing progress — produce visceral satisfaction. Unread books accumulate, marking a tension between companionship and solitary, engaged reading.

Read at Psychology Today