To think being a reader doesn't make you better or smarter?

[OnceaReaderNeveraReader]

Never been a reader. I have tried many times in my life and have enjoyed the odd book here and there but have never managed to actually become a regular reader and don't miss books ever. I was talking about this with some colleagues the other day and one of them made me feel a bit bad about this as if reading is a sign of better intellectual ability and superiority.
I am uni educated and enjoy a variety of other cultural hobbies such as art, theatre and dance but I just cannot understand what is so special about books!
How does one become a reader later in life and is it really that bad if I don't enjoy it?

On the flip side, people are now saying that reading a physical book on the train is performative 😬

Yes, if someone feels inadequate they will label any activity they don't personally do as 'performative' or 'virtue signalling'!

I knew far more about prostitution and 'tarts with a heart' than I ever should have done at 10 years old thanks to the Lena Kennedys of the world 😁For all I know they were the grounding in why I see certain dehumanised groups of people as human.

There was an Irish writer as well that I used to read a lot though I've never been able to remember who it was. One book about a young woman having to marry a much older man and live on his farm and 'mother' his children always stuck in my mind, and another that highlighted the different ways boys and girls were treated re teen pregnancy decades ago. They were actually very rich books, not the empty-headed nonsense people think!

I think I've read this one too....
Maeve Binchy?

I was going to say Catherine Cookson but she was NE England.

I think a lot of the plots were very similar.

I note that you didn't try to answer the OP's question instead you just tried to pick holes in my reply. How many novelists have you actually spoken to in person? Most of them spend a great deal of time on research.

I’m not sure you’re right about “most”, with the current trend for self-publishing. I’d have agreed with you a few years back, but a lot of the books on offer now seem to be AI or AI-assisted slop - it’s been really noticeable over the last 12 months, but even before the AI invasion I think the general quality of new fiction declined.

Edna O'brien?

Op, I am a literary (book) editor ... and I would never read books for pleasure! Never have. People always imagine that editors must love books/fiction, so they constantly bore me, telling stories of books they love.

It's in the same way that people constantly talk to me about cats, just because I have three.

My answer is, "I love Persian cats, not cats in general." And they look at me as if I'm crazy.

So, no, I just enjoy language, not books.

I can't name a single book I have read for pleasure and enjoyed, aside from kids' books. Reading or not reading says nothing about your intellect.

the da vinci code by dan brown is a great book

Famous quote
" A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies .... the man who never reads lives only one."
George RR Martin.
(sorry I haven't read through the full thread, apologies if this has already been posted.)

I find this very difficult to understand. If you don't enjoy the books you edit and wouldn't want to read them for pleasure, how can you expect your customers to enjoy reading them?

Why so rude? I’m so fed up of all the rude posters on MN these days. They just seem to get off on being rude and sneery.

It’s not necessarily so, can you prove your comment?

I’m basing my comment on what people post on the threads, I wouldn’t have made the same assumption you did.

No, I do think it makes you better and smarter.

You learn a lot, you can use your imagination, you learn grammar and vocabulary

And you have to concentrate and not stare at a screen.

I read a lot - both paper books and Kindle versions. Current read is Alice Loxton's "Eleanor".

I read a lot- novels, magazines, newspapers, online stuff etc. None of my family are readers- I never saw my Mum or Dad read a book, my brother just about read the ones he needed to for school. My husband doesn't read, neither does my daughter, although my son will read occasionally. I don't think it makes you smarter, it just broadens your knowledge. My spelling is good, as is my comprehension and punctuation. I read a wide genre of books so pick up information from them.
However, my husband is amazing at DIY, and fixing and mending things. He can strip down a motorbike and rebuild it, and built our loft conversion. So he's smarter at that than I'll ever be!

Reading does make you smarter, not just novels not I mean reading anything and everything. It increases your vocabulary, can put you in other peoples shoes and situations and teach empathy and compassion. Books can transform you in space and time and create entire worlds in your own head. After love and a stable home, there is no bigger gift you can give a child than fostering a life long love of reading.

I do feel a bit sorry for people that don’t enjoy reading. A movie is ok but you aren’t the director, you are just seeing the directors vision of what the screen writer dreamed up. But with a book, you can imagine it in exactly your own way depending on how much or how little the author has said. It’s just amazing. Literal magic. And every book teaches me something new.

I'm appalled when someone tells me they don't read books.
Not because I think they're stupid but because I want them to experience them.
But I know some people just aren't interested. I know plenty of people who have done well without reading.

I don’t think it makes someone a better person, but I do think it does contribute to making someone more educated and smarter.

Readers are usually smarter and better educated as they simply take in more information on a regular basis. But just being a reader doesn’t mean you are smart nor does having a degree.

But to get into narrative reading more I’d say find books that speak of things you enjoy. You like dance find a book that incorporates that for example. I’d also experiment with genres. Just because something says young adult doesn’t mean you can’t read being older than that. Same goes for other genre read the synopsis and just try something that is new to you and you may not have thought of before or usually wouldn’t. Romance can also be cozie crime (things like father brown are cozie crime) it can also be sci-fi etc etc. often genres mix. So horror isn’t just Stephen king and it can be gory or it can be magic/fantasy related. Just try different things.

And try digital or actual books and see what you like. I like reading for pleasure digitally as I can do it in bed or on the bus, etc. but reference books like for crafting I like in paper.

I don't think reading makes you better, but I do think that, depending on what you read, it can help to give you a well rounded education.

Education is not just about teaching and exams, it is about life-long learning, and I learn so much just from reading books. Finding out about other ways of life, other cultures, history, all sorts of things... and I'm not one for reading very high brow books. I just don't read total rubbish.

Being a reader doesn’t make you ‘better’ than a non-reader. But it does make you smarter than you would be if you didn’t read. How smart you are compared to other people is a different measure.

I used to read loads (pre phones) but now I find I can't concentrate. I do however love books and I obsessively listen to audible while commuting/driving/walking the dog. I've done biographies, business books and loads of fiction from John Grisham to Charles Dickens, it's great. So maybe it's a childhood regression thing of being read to.
Reading does improve your vocab and spelling I'm pretty sure. In fact when we use "fancy words" as my kids describe them, they say we sound pretentious and old fashioned and are horrified that we would put them in work emails as "anyone under 40 wouldn't know what they meant and would feel belittled".
It's not a problem not to read, my wife goes on holiday with no word of a lie, a physical book for each 2 days of holiday!!! Busts our luggage allowance wide open. I take one and barely open it. Usually she runs out and steals my lone book and scoffs at how trashy it is!!

Maybe you’ve just never found your people/genre? I’ve always read a lot but was getting very bored and tried a few different things. Finally discovered fantasy (note not “romantasy ” 🙄) and sci fi and it’s been a revelation.

Proving definitively that readers are not smarter than non-readers.

See also: 50 Shades of Grey

On the strength of this thread, I think my views have shifted. Reading does make you smarter than non readers. Readers are more willing and able to shift opinions after reading something that alters their thinking, just because they have seen something different.

So yes, several hundred responses in, I will say IMO readers are more congenial and much more interesting than non readers.