General News
16 November, 2026
Call the Doctor: How we read, and why
Recently, I came across a fictional book I’m thoroughly enjoying, so this fortnight I thought I would write about reading and our relationship with it.
Recently I came across a fictional book I’m thoroughly enjoying, so this fortnight I thought I would write about reading and our relationship with it.
Everyone has their own unique relationship with reading that, like any relationship, changes over time.
A stereotypical example would be enjoying fantasy novels as an adolescent, reading less in midlife and then leaning into classical literature in your later years.
That said, I suspect most people have something more uniquely personal going on.
I rarely find a fiction I enjoy, something I think is genuinely sad.
History, news articles, theological and medical texts and a magazine called Philosophy Now are more my cup of tea.
I'm emulous of my friends who derive endless hours of truly transformative journeying through the pages of fantasy novels.
I blame university and my career for forcing me to learn to enjoy dry analytical non-fiction.
Perhaps later in life I'll grow to have a broader love of literature again.
How people approach reading also differs.
I remember an oddly wise Irishman I travelled with in Morocco suggesting that if you don't love a book after the first two pages you should put it down, given that there are many excellent books but far more terrible ones.
My traditionally wise grandmother, however, suggests we follow Nancy Pearl's ‘rule of 50’ whereby you can judge a book only after reading 50 pages.
That is until your 51st birthday, when you can judge a book after 49 pages, and so on until at 99 years old you can judge a book by its first page.
The way people read also varies.
Some people skim a text, getting the message.
Others study it, carefully noticing each word and phrase.
Scholars of old have lamented the modern phenomenon of skim-reading, as centuries ago it was more common to read books multiple times and with deep contemplation.
Perhaps, though, this was more to do with the literature available at the time.
Reading is generally considered a good thing, and of course it usually is.
There are books, however, that are considered damaging to read given their harmful lies.
Furthermore, just like watching horror films might make you anxious, reading true crime might have you see the world as more dangerous than it is.
Reading brings us riches, whether it be knowledge, respite from stressors, joy, fulfilment, wonder or wisdom.
It can be beautiful – for example, in calligraphy, poetry, someone's nice handwriting or, as I'm discovering, James Joyce's Ulysses.
Inadvertently, it also broadens our vocabulary, writing, spelling and speech.
Reading is sometimes used to inflate ego.
We all know someone who has (or have ourselves) boasted about having read something.
The author of The Lord of the Rings claimed most people read the newspaper just to appear intelligent.
Reading, or rather a relative lack of ability to do so, is also a source of shame and embarrassment for people.
It is never someone's own fault if they can't read well, and we should always be empathetic in this regard.
I guess the point I want to make, aside from hopefully encouraging reading, is that everyone reads differently.
We read different material, in different ways, for different purposes and get different things from it.
So no matter what you read and however you read it, I hope you feel good about it.