Our Dislike of Reading Books
Chapter 2: Notes On Success
Chapter 2: Our Dislike Of Reading Books
When I was a kid, I met Sarah Collins.
She was 15 and about to go on a date with her high school boyfriend. There was a price though, she had to let her step father molest her first in exchange for using the family car.
Listen Or Read!
We all want to be a “writer” these days.
Even if we don’t even realize it. Influencer, YouTuber, Podcaster, Author. It’s all the same.
It’s writing.
It’s ironic then, that we all hate to read. We’d rather listen to audio. Watch a video. Use some new intelligent software to do all the work for us.
But, when it comes down to it, if we want to make any money- we have to just friggin write.
Seems simple, but it took someone like me years to figure this out.
So let’s not get so down on ourselves, and just do the damn work. Bleed over a keyboard and see how it goes.
There’s some psychological reasons for why reading has started dying a slow death.
Smartphones and social media have become the primary conduits of information and entertainment.
These platforms offer instant gratification delivering bite-sized, constantly “refreshing” content that stimulates our brains with rapid dopamine hits. The ease of scrolling through social media is far less mentally taxing than engaging with the immersive, slow-burning process of reading a book.
This immediacy has rewired our reward systems, so that the sustained attention required for deep reading now feels laborious and unrewarding. It’s a fact that reading a five hundred page non fiction book is, in a way, a terrible experience. Not because we go into it thinking this way, but because our brains are becoming wired for it.
Now, if we’re over the age of sixty of course, our ability to enjoy deep learning via written word is probably better than someone say, in their mid thirties.
Their brain is less jacked up. Basically. The younger we are, the worse it is.
Reading a book is not a passive activity; it requires sustained concentration, imagination, and the willingness to embrace moments of boredom. But literal decades of digital multitasking have gradually eroded our ability to focus for extended periods of time.
In other words. Doing work sucks. Especially mental work.
No one likes it.
Even “elite” college professors have observed that many incoming students are ill-prepared for the rigorous demands of literary study. Or any kind of study.
Asking anyone to fully read an entire academic textbook is a ridiculous ask.
I’m not here to pontificate and solve the problems of education, it’s just a thought worth thinking about.
Another problem with reading is well, the products out there to read in the here and now often suck.
If we have enough poor reading experiences, the likelihood we will continue to give, so called “Authors” a chance, drastically diminishes.
In the not-so-distant past, writing was widely regarded as an art—a craft honed over years of practice, reflection, and deep personal expression.
That’s not the world we live in today.
Things like generative artificial intelligence have upended this long-held tradition, transforming writing from a distinctive human endeavor into a process that can be mass-produced, measured, and, ultimately, commoditized.
Writing is rapidly becoming a commodity.
If you live in a developed country, “clean” drinking water is pretty much everywhere. It’s affordable, easy to access, and we rarely even give it a thought.
Great, healthy, clean, totally unpolluted water… however.. actual, great, clean, water, is actually very very hard to come by.
That is where writing has gone.
It’s not on its way there.
We are already there.
Commoditization occurs when a product or service becomes widely available and standardized, reducing its ability to command premium value through differentiation.
It’s very very very F’ING hard to stand out as a Writer.
We have to actually entertain.
Actually teach.
Actually, do something unique. Something that has never been done before.
Sarah Collins, having grown up with years of abuse, found her place of comfort buried behind the pages of books. Mostly fiction.
She allowed herself to be fully immersed in story. It didn’t provide comfort or healing.
It offered escape to a different world entirely.
In 2005, this was more widely known as “reading books”.
Our lifestyles have changed, and that is okay. Modern schedules leave little room for quiet, uninterrupted reading. Consider someone who, after a long day, finds the instant gratification of binge-watching a TV series far more appealing than settling in with a dense book.
I am with you.
Books simply are no longer the go-to piece of media for quick hits of dopamine, Ka-POW!
Did you feel it?
The dopamine hit I just gave you.
Exactly. That’s my point.
I once heard someone say that if more human beings would just write things down on a piece of paper, they would remember things more often. It wasn’t negligible either, it was something stupid, like fifty more percent of the time.
We would not only improve recall, but improve our brains themselves.
When we read, our brain isn’t just processing words; it’s engaging multiple regions simultaneously. Areas responsible for visual processing, language, and higher-level comprehension become active, strengthening neural connections and enhancing overall brain function.
But hey, screw our brains. Right?
Fact is, we find other ways to escape life. Because it really is just that. A great, fantastic escape into a world someone else has taken the time and the effort to create.
Today we don’t need pieces of paper bound with glue to initiate our escape.
At least we, in most cases, don’t want them.
All we need is a good set of noise cancelling headphones. And a screen.
Lucky for us, we have one of those in our pockets.
It takes almost zero effort to watch, or listen. Compared to deep reading. These formats fit more easily into our fast‐paced, multitasking lifestyles and require less undivided attention.
It’s more convenient. Easy. Inexpensive.
So what’s the solution?
Stop writing books. Stop reading books. Stop caring, about books.
OR!
Write a really damn good book.
Some still do that. But as we discussed earlier, the amount of books out there often exceeds our ability to find the good ones.
I’d like to think that if you’re here, we can help each other. Read a good one.
Recommend a good one.
More importantly, write a good one.
That is the key, I think- to lending a hand. Helping someone. Giving someone the escape they need.
Don’t F’ing forget about Sarah Collins.
Ever.
This is an Excerpt from My Book Notes On Success,
You can purchase it here if you’d like to support us!