Binge reading? Really?

[MsAmerica]

I find the idea, and phrase, distasteful - as if a person doesn't normally read, but then does it to excess. Is an hour a "binge"? But maybe some of you will like the article.

Why You Should Start Binge-Reading Right Now
Ditch Netflix for a novel. And not just because a novelist is telling you to.
By Ben Dolnick

For the first time in as long as I could remember, my sole source of entertainmentfor an evening was going to be a book.

www.nytimes.com/2019/05/04/opinion/sunday/why-you-should-start-binge-reading-right-now.html?searchResultPosition=1

gulfnews.com/opinion/off-the-cuff-the-pleasures-of-binge-reading-1.63733289

dnyuz.com/2019/05/04/why-you-should-start-binge-reading-right-now/

I don't find it distasteful, I just find it stupid.

We already have a word for binge reading, it's called reading.

I understand where you're coming from. I've loved books for as long as I can remember and enjoy reading for hours when I can. I've never seen it as excessive, unhealthy or undesirable (which is what I would associate with the term 'binge'). People spend hours doing other hobbies, yet you don't hear the terms 'binge gardening', 'binge painting' or 'binge cycling', for example!

I think the clue is in the comparison to Netflix, which is famously "binge-watched". The writer is just suggesting that reading is a more satisfying alternative.

I don't think it is anything to do with portraying reading as unhealthy- quite the opposite.

OP, you might be interested in the article from the HuffPost article that I've quoted below (www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5050240/amp):

Sorry guys, that's where I draw the line. Here's why: Reading is not a binge activity. Reading for long hours at a time is mentally engaging, surrounds the reader with an aura of productivity, and does not leave one with a sense of remorse and embarrassment. No one says, "I was so lazy this weekend. All I did was sit around and read Swann's Way. And then when I finished... I started Infinite Jest! I know, I know, I have a problem."

Besides, the idea that spending several hours with a book needs a new term is an absurd concept. It's called reading. The activity of sitting down with a novel for the afternoon is not a trend; it's just how reading has almost always worked.

As someone mentioned, it's used in relation to watching an entire TV series in a short time. I must admit I have done it with a newly discovered author or character I have enjoyed.
It started when I was given all the Famous Five books for my 8th birthday. Even though I had read most of them, I re-read the entire series in order in a couple of weeks.

As an adult there have been innumerable times I have read one book by a new new author and been totally charmed for some reason and read everything they've written in a couple of weeks.This varies from the fairly mundane like Liane Moriarty or Paul Temple to, I suppose, slightly more challenging like Arnold Bennett or Trollope after enjoying a TV serialisation of one of their books. It need not be an author but can be a character eg Lindsey Davis's Falco books or Karin Slaughter's Will Trent books - I can take or leave other books by the same authors.

In any case, it's as if I have to gobble (and you thought "binge" was distasteful) down the books, and then wait in sweaty anticipation for the next one to be published.