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User1  2yr ago (text post)   3513 thread views

Why Read?

I have never read a book in my life. I might as well be illiterate, and most people around me might as well be too. Most libraries are vacant, and bookstores are gone. But all these people are doing fine - we put anything down on paper, and despite its incoherence it seems fine by standards that have stooped for reasons I do not know. I can turn in something that makes absolutely no sense, and an instructor from a decent school will tell me that he enjoyed it. Or an instructor won’t enjoy it, but since most people don’t write anything comprehensible anymore I’ll still be fine. I can cruise through my education and get a job while barely having read much at all. Everyone frequents some variant of flimsy entertainment - cable news, cartoons, social media - so why bother trying to read anything worthwhile anyways if nobody else is? Does reading actually make you more curious, more intelligent, more human?

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Yeah I don't really like reading either, that other stuff is definitely more entertaining, but it's ultimately useless and a waste of my time. If I want to be of any use thinking about or talking about a topic I need the depth that comes from reading. It forces you to think about it. Audiobooks don't usually work as well, because I can hear what they're saying without thinking about it, plus with reading I can spend the time I want on a thought or a piece of the text where audiobooks/videos just move on.

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