Well, the fact that you’re reading some article on a somewhat literary blog means that you probably read something to some extent.

But I just wanted to ask the people who never read—and by that I mean for fun, or for leisure, or for entertainment, or for independent learning—why they don’t.

And since this is for people who don’t like reading, I will make this as simple and understandable and clear and quick and painless as possible.

So I’ll use short(er) sentences.

And lots of line breaks.

And try to render something not resembling of a children’s book.

Because you are not a child.

(Probably.)

Some people take pride in their dislike of reading. (People often try to turn their flaws into things of pride, as if to make up for the fact that—well, flawed.)

If you don’t read because you think it’s too nerdy or geeky or uncool or whatever, you have a misconception-plus of those things.

(And by the way, “-plus” is just additional weight to the meaning of a word—though, considering you don’t read, you probably don’t like arithmetic either. Don’t worry, it’s not really mathematics. It’s just simple computation.

“Whatever.”)

For one thing, anything you think is cool most likely took a bit of knowledge to produce.

And words on a page are just groups of potential knowledge stored in linguistic symbols to be perceived and neurotransmitted for later recollection and use. That’s reading.

If you don’t read because it’s boring, I can’t imagine what you find interesting that isn’t condensed to sit-com length and simplicity.

(And this is.)

If you don’t find a novel interesting, a word-product designed and meant for entertainment, I doubt you perceive much of the wonder and magic of the universe—or of life, or of the deep and important things of the world.

If you even care.

If you don’t read because it feels lonely—because reading is an act done in solitude—you don’t understand that the feeling is only temporary, and that this loneliness will not be cured through any kind of social media or internet activity or device, because those are only distractions from the deep and gnawing hunger for something real.

…which reading can satisfy.

If you think reading is not important, rethink it. Because language is the foundation for human connection, and the written word is the holy use of language if ever there was one.

And if it sounds like I’m judging you, I absolutely am. Because it’s about time.

Thanks for reading.