What else am I gonna do? Talk to people?

Because sad voice in head can't talk while reading voice in head is talking.

Edit: Remember to Upvote the main topic!

The bottom line is that I want to **learn**. Through reading I gain knowledge, explore new ideas, and learn about other people's experiences and perspectives. Reading expands my understanding of the world.

To not to get bored on the shitter.

I read for both knowledge and enjoyment. I read for escape from the stress of my daily life and to travel, both to other places and times past. One of my best decisions ever has been to devote some time to reading every day, and to get into my local library every weekend.

I love a good story, but I also enjoy getting out of my own head and spending time in another’s.

To escape reality. The real world is hard, unforgiving and painful. I read mostly fantasy. It helps me live in a different world for a while.

Long answer incoming.

I was a huge bookworm as a teenager (I barely read through my 20's and I'm just getting back into books at 30). I was "homeschooled" (AKA my parents threw books at me and I taught myself) until the 7th grade when they wanted to do "unschooling" (in other words completely neglect my education and let me spend all day in front of the TV/on the internet). I grew up in an anti-love, negligent, and occasionally abusive family with no one I could trust.

Just before I was 13 I was grounded due to an incident in a church group (it was not actually my fault but whatever) and after that my parents always made excuses for why I couldn't go out to groups so I stopped trying and just stayed home. The one place I could besides getting groceries was the library.

Books became my escape and my one avenue to connect with figures I admired. Who were nice and honest. I could vicariously imagine all the things I needed but couldn't get in my own life, like having friends, going to school, adventures . . . Books were the one thing in my life that was exciting and that I could look forward to.

My 20's were incredibly difficult mentally so book reading became more challenging and I went through long periods of not reading anything. I always missed that part of me but it felt impossible to get back into it.

I've started reading again in the last few weeks and it's so much more wonderful now than it used to be. I really appreciate the craft of writing and how someone brings their imagination to life and invites me into it. It's been a hard year and I've grown a lot from it, and I appreciate more than ever being able to connect with worlds and characters that I can look up to. I love reading their emotional journeys because in my culture people usually suppress their needs and emotions, but books can be much more open and raw and it helps me feel connected to myself and my own emotions.

I'm also reading because I've become more and more addicted to the internet over the years and reading books is helping me regain my concentration and patience.

I feel like I've missed out on so many great books but I'm so excited to read them and get immersed like I used to; getting the book hangovers and waiting for the next instalment . . . I've really missed it and I'm ready to make up for lost time.

Curiosity and enjoyment.

I’m an only child, so it was a primary form of entertainment for me growing up. Now that I’m older, I read more intentionally and choose books that I hope can broaden my knowledge of the world and the human condition.

Fiction for entertainment, nonfiction because I want to learn about a topic. I often do end up learning a lot from fiction as well though, whether it's about how things work in some other country I've never been to, or even just learning new words or phrases.

Because sometimes my inner whore can only be satisfied by a mysterious, morally gray, tall, dark and handsome with a traumatic past romance laden with trigger warnings.

Because it’s written into my DNA. I read fiction and non-fiction, and love both. I’ve gone through a number of phases in life, but the common thread along the way has been books. For entertainment, looking for a decoder ring of sorts, with which to make sense of the world. Besides, authors, whether living or dead, are better company than most people, including myself.

i like to reflect on things, and i like people. fiction gives me both without making me go out and run down my introvert battery.

i mean, that's **an** answer, but i don't think i know the real one. it's been my go-to since i first remember things. tv didn't exist where i was raised and movies were fairly major events in my family. i never really took to that medium.

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, and the one who doesn't read, lives just one."

I read because it’s really fun.

Thinking about new things, learning lessons, or thinking about how I’d react in a similar situation are just side hustles.

I read for fun! The knowledge I gain along the way is just a benefit :)

Can’t wait for 99% of these responses to be about “escapism”

Honestly I only picked up reading because I needed something to do while tanning. Then I realized how great it is and now it’s the only activity I can do without getting bored or distracted after 5 mins

To escape

I think I read mostly to sublimate.

I want to write great novels myself. I think reading helps me sublimate those urges. I feel like I'm writing these great things as I'm reading them. Of course, I'm not, and I think the advice that to write well you need to read a lot is overstated. Like, if all you needed to do to write well is read a lot, then I would be a great writer but I am not. I'm very lazy and reading, in my experience, is a lot easier than writing. Writing is very hard and not as immediately pleasurable as reading is.

I literally get bored doing pretty much anything else. But if I read some in the morning, I spend the day walking around thinking about what I read. It makes life more interesting. I also like to go down very long rabbit holes, reading everything about a historical topic, for example. It takes me to some other place.

Escapism.

I read books for their good stories, for a world to escape into.

Fiction for escapism.

Non-fiction to be more smart good.

Because I love stories.

I want to keep learning and being challenged even though I’m no longer in school. Fiction as a hobby/entertainment. It’s easier for me to focus on books than movies or tv.

*A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.*
George R.R. Martin

Escape from reality.

I read because I love a really good story. I don't even do nonfiction because that feels more like school than fun. Reading also teaches you so much about words and language, not to mention about the ways in which other people live and do things, and what different parts of the world are all about. Can't get enough!

I’ve always read. It calms me down and takes me away from my world and I love it.

Several things:
- Movies are boring to me, while books require the use of my imagination condtantly which feels many times better
- I love taking my time with a story rather than seeing it all in like 2 hours
- I love the aspect of thoughts in some books. Like, thoughts of every character. Not all books write them but if they do, its done better than in movies I think

i enjoy the worlds that come a live in my mind

It's a combination of entertainment, appreciation of the art form (i.e., authors with a beautiful/creative writing style), and learning new things. The best books provide all three. Plus a book lasts longer than a movie and can be gotten for free or cheap, so it's very cost-effective.

I love good writing

I love knowledge!

because there's nowt on TV

Why do I breathe?

Why do I need food?

Mom always had books for us, we all knew how to read before we started school, I did the same for my kid. It wasn't a question of why so much as what; I read huge chunks of local libraries. Then I discovered sf/f, went to a worldcon, and met my people.

I love writing, but good gravy. Reading is so much easier than writing it's not even funny.

I read to unwind and escape the screwed up world we live in.

Run rose run

The backs of shampoo bottles whilst taking a dump

Escapism

I read stories (true stories and delightful lies) to simply learn more about this beautiful, strange world I inhabit. I am so curious - although I have no interest in violence. I have a very active imagination too.

I read for the adventure, learning magic systems, and for cute cats.

To prove Andrew Tate wrong

I mean, if we're distilling it down to a single reason, it's probably escapism. But even if the world wasn't on fire, I would still do it. I can't even sit through a movie, but I can read all day.

I read to learn about cultures, worlds and philosophies I was never taught. To explore the author's craft and new ways of writing and speaking, character development and the powerful visualization of setting. Not to mention, to escape reality. JK.

Sometimes books make me feel empty, happy, grieving and heavy. I love that and I read seeking for that feeling.

Only problem is that I've come across books that are average at best that I finish up dropping instead of finishing them if they don't make me feel anything.

What in the fuck are you talking about?

When I read, I don't think about work or any of my problems. It also feels like going on adventures without leaving my bedroom.

That's right; when I was your age television was called books!

Depends on the book and my mood, there are many reasons. I read to learn things, I read because I am curious, I read to get lost in a story, I read to feel for characters, I read to feel, I read to see from another's point of view, I read because I want a laugh, I read because I just want a good story.

Science fiction and non-fiction. Like you I love exploring new worlds and I also love learning and critical thought. I love books that challenge me to think differently about the world, and that peak my imagination.

And also, escapism of course. Not as much with non-fiction, although it can be, but I find there's nothing better than science fiction to get my head away from whatever stressful is happening at work.

It’s fun?

It’s fun.

Fun, escape, learning.

Like a mountain climber: because I can.

To escape from Reddit

Because I love literature and because it's surely good for the mind.

Lately.. I've been able to enjoy fiction for the same reason as pretty much everyone else (escapism).

But for a very long time I would read just for validation from adults, since my mom and her friends were always encouraging me to read. I hope no one else is forcing themselves to read like I used to..

I don't know... I just find it enjoyable ☺️

Angsty shit and anything juicy with sex/drugs/rock n roll and murder

Because it costs less than a holodeck from Star Trek. A good book is a cheap vacation to another time and place you can take almost anywhere, and costs practically nothing.

when i was younger my family life was vv toxic and a teacher had shown me a book and i really enjoyed it and it helped me forget about what was going on at home, so now i read them cause it brings back all those feelings i had when i had read my first book, and i just enjoy visiting a younger version of myself.

I have no idea. It's something I've always done.

I read because I enjoy it.

I read fiction for escapism and entertainment. I read non-fiction out of curiosity.

can’t not

It’s a good outlet for escapism, for sure. Was paramount for me in my late teens and early 20s on developing a life perspective and expanding my world view, really helped to ease my somewhat restless mind during those years.

It’s an interesting exercise because you can read both focused and unfocused. You’ll often see posts in this community about difficulty retaining information that was read mere pages ago. I don’t think that’s a bad thing necessarily, and it’s not a reason to stop reading. I generally only have 1 or 2 takeaways from any book I ever read anyways. But it’s an exercise regardless, and can be viewed as a form of active recovery for the mind.

The expansion of your vocabulary, reading comprehension, critical thinking, and overall ability to articulate your thoughts is no joke either. These are skills that can be applied to numerous facets of life.

I realize I haven’t really answered the question to this point though. For me, I would say it’s a genuine curiosity to explore the world and if I can’t do it physically then books are a good substitute.

My father has always been a reader so he taught me *very* young. I have two siblings and of the three of us I was the only one who just completely fell in love with it.

I grew up in a very abusive home and have some pretty severe medical issues that I've had since I was a kid so for me, reading was always an escape. No one in my books was hurting me, criticizing me, or judging me. I could pick up a book and be in another world, or I could find a character going through bad things like I was and who could understand me. I could bring my book with me practically anywhere and just dive right in when the world/people around me was too overwhelming or crappy.

As I've gotten older, reading is still an escape even though my life is not as tumultuous as it once was. I love reading other stories, considering other POVs and experiences, and escaping to other worlds. It's just my favourite activity.

Because I love to.

It’s free and it’s fun

A variable mix of some, or all, of the following;
- improve my writing
- improve my reading
- expand my imaginaton
- give the voices in my head different viewpoints to contemplate
- vicariously expand my life experience

When I was younger I thought I read more for inspiration (to do art, creative things). As an older person I believe that I read more to escape the negative voices in my head.

I read because, from childhood, I’ve never been able to replicate the feeling that reading gives me. I can get lost in a completely new world without distractions, commitments, noise, etc. Reading is the only exercise for me that is fully immersive. I focus only on the book’s details and the movie that its scenarios are creating in my head. I love words and language; reading always teaches me new words and ways of expressing myself. Mostly, I love to be swept away from the comfort of my own couch.

Sometimes fiction explains better the reality than the reality explains itself.

I like stories! I also want to escape my own life sometimes for worlds full of magic, quests and interesting things.

It make my brain big

Stories! I love listening to people tell their stories. Little things along their life journey that make an impression on them, however mundane or exciting. Reading them, listening to them, telling them.
I want to punch people on the face when they say people talk too much about themselves. Noooo! Keep telling your stories. I want to hear them by a summer night’s fire, with a morning cup of coffee on the patio, over brunch. Anywhere! Books are storytelling and I adore them.

For entertainment and it's peaceful.

I read fiction for enjoyment. For me it’s a lot more enjoyable than tv shows or movies.

Because I enjoy it.

i don't know how common this is but i personally have a hard time accessing my thoughts and opinions. critical thinking and developing ideas for me is something that can only happen if im having an active dialogue with either a person or a text etc. so for me, reading is a means to keep my mind sharp and focused and to make sure i'm thinking, questioning, learning about myself and the world i live in despite needing that layer of abstraction to do it through.

To hopefully keep my brain from becoming mush.

Same, but also because its all I've known. Reading was my first long special interest

Helps me relax when it's time for bed. Great for shutting my body down.

Once I learned, I never stopped. A tad compulsive.

To learn, to feel, to imagine profoundly. To find new ways of experiencing the world.

To relax.

For fun

I like using my imagination to visualize what I’m reading. I like to daydream and think about whatever book that I’m reading.

Their are so many stories to experience that are only available in book form

I'm with you: escape and enrichment, fiction and non-fiction. I've been a reader more than 60 years and can't imagine life without it.

I read every single day, for hours, real books not just news articles, etc. (Not that they is anything wrong with that either of course) and I do it as a way of distraction to keep anxiety and pain at bay it also helps a lot with trying to keep away from some of the more negative aspects of the world right now. Everybody needs a vacation for a few hours everyday 🙂

It increases my reading comprehension and reading speed and also it feels good to read

I read books to escape. My life isn't horrible at all, but I like to go to other times and other places and get away from my own life. I read fiction and non-fiction, but I like fiction better, usually.

It’s as essential to me as breathing and always has been.

I like being immersed in a different world

I read because I don’t have to wait on anyone else to do it. I also like movies and TV shows, but my girlfriend doesn’t like it if I watch things without her, so we constantly have to coordinate in order to enjoy those mediums. With books, I can read whenever, wherever. It’s a very personal experience, even if you’re doing it as part of a book club. Nobody has ever read the same book as another person.

I have a lot of free time at work and I’m trying not to be on my phone scrolling so much. I can also be more selective of the books I consume vs whatever media pops up while I’m scrolling that the algorithm decides I should like.

I say that as if I don’t scroll tiktok for book recs lol

Me likey look at book and imagine thingy and think about thingy

I read a lot of classic literature and Sci-Fi, and I guess the reasoning is multifaceted. Broadening intelligence, connecting with and understanding historical society and often seeing people were the same hundreds of years back, as well as entertainment, and if I’m being honest, being able to notch off that I’ve read most of the classics. I’ve read ALL of Dostoevsky. I’ve read ALL of Tolstoy. I’m reading all of Dickens. I’ve read all 13 books by William Gibson, most of this that and the other sci-fi authors I’m interested in so that I can understand their stories ans bibliographies. It’s better than the current trappings of society. I consider Fyodor Dostoevsky one of my all time favorite authors. He fully understood the human condition better and conveyed better in writing than most writers to this day.

One answer I’m not seeing a lot here is to enjoy a book’s beauty. I just finished reading Lolita and, yes it’s an interesting story and all to “escape” my world, but really I admired the prose, language games, cleverness, and the beauty that the novel has when viewed as a work of literary genius.

In my view it’s a similar answer as to what people would say if you asked why we look at paintings or listen to music. There is an aesthetic quality there that somehow adds value to our lives when we take it in.

I think for me it has probably always been a vital way of integrating disparate parts of myself and connecting to other people. It’s intimate in a way that feels completely immersive and safe in a lonely world. It feeds my soul and delights my mind; reading provides endless pictures to see inside my head. I remember trying to to learn braille when I was about 11 or so, just in case. That’s how important reading was and still is. (I found it very hard to learn to read braille!)

Mental escape from my life with epilepsy.

1) Boredom is a choice so I choose to read. 2) A form of escapism from the stress of the day. 3) Learn new things. 4) Reading is so fun.

I read for education, enlightenment, and escape.

Lots of reasons. I read for fun, to see new worlds and ideas, to learn new things, or to challenge myself.

So many reasons, to learn, to escape, to explore, to laugh, to cry. It all depends on my mood.

i read because i want to learn about other perspectives. even when the setting is out there in another world the story is still based on how a person on earth feels or thinks one would feel if things went down that way.

I once read the jail manual twice because I was at rock bottom and was desperate to feel like a normal person. I also hoped the police watching everyone in holding would see that I was taking my circumstance seriously by reading it in the first place.

I was also terrified that I wouldn't make bail and I would need to know what I was going to be in for if I got put in a cell.

It brought me peace of mind, despite the chaos of my life at that time, that there were rules in place that I could (had to) follow.

Nowadays I read because it makes my brain light up with positive emotions. It ignites something in my mind and makes me feel less alone, allows me to escape, and distracts me from the present.

Currently I'm reading Dune: Messiah, Frankenstein, Crime and Punishment, The Western Canon, and I am starting God Doesn't Whisper tonight before bed.

I pick from the current reads based on what I think will benefit my mind, emotion, or spirit in that moment or that day.

I've never thought to ask "why?". I just like to read and learn.

I’ve never really liked reading until i found a very exciting book last year that i finished quickly, i felt like such an adult and the book was based off something real so i really felt like i learned something, and that’s when i discovered that reading isn’t boring at all, i just haven’t read the right books, and it’s also a great escape from the digital world we live in, it’s a fine break away from the phone and social media

This quote from GoT (which I have ironically never actually read) sums it up pretty well:

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he died. The man who never leaves lives only one."

Other reasons include helping me understand/see other perspectives better (reading builds empathy!), getting to experience the beauty and complexity that language can entail (I'm an English teacher, so I nerd about that kind of thing more than most people XD), and because it's a great way to pass time on flights, waiting in lines, etc.

Because often times, Hollywood will pick shitty books to turn into shows or movies (e.g. The Last Thing He Told Me - such a stupid book and now a show).

I also like learning about various topics and experiences, so I read a lot of non-fiction. I enjoy fiction, too.

To learn and engage with new and important ways of thinking about the world.

I like to learn new stuff. It’s better for my brain than endless mindless scrolling. I like to think about things differently and learn how to. It’s cheaper than going out :)

I mostly read as an escape from my own boring life

It makes my life longer. I get to experience more life by reading.

Since I don't see many posts similar to mine here it goes.

I started to read solely as a reason to reduce screen time. I wanted something non technology focused in my life around 2018. Started reading a few books then and began to like a more complete, detailed story than what most movies and shows provide. Now I read for those stories and to supplement my desire for a beautiful library one day. It is a motivation to me to be widely read as the intellectuals of days past, and having all of those books to display as I get older.

Stephen King.

I just feel like his character development and storytelling skills are top notch. I'm running through all the books he wrote now.

There used to be things that could happen in books that couldn't be shown in movies. With better CGI that has decreased a lot but I still prefer books to movies for the most part.

I think reading is akin to traveling, it's something I do to broaden my horizons and make me a more interesting, intelligent human being.

Wind down and enjoy a good story after a day at work. Helps me sleep as well.

To learn, to understand other points of view. For escapism. To humor myself. Because I’m bored…

To escape reality in a way that let’s me learning simultaneously (e.g., vocabulary, perspective).

It is a great way to escape the 24-hour news cycle and whatever awful things the self-hating part of me has to say at any given moment. Growing up in a relatively isolated rural home with very limited internet access in the 90’s-2000’s, it was also a great way to learn about the wider world and different cultures.

I need a happy ending

I’m returning to reading specifically because of the state of the world.

I try to read a variety of books.

The one I am currently reading has given me so much insight into how f’d we all are here in America.

Lol. I read books because “they” don’t want me to. People stay away from me when I carry my book.

I have no problem scaring people who are afraid of someone having any “knowledge”.

For the same reason I breathe. I can't not read.

Because I’m incredibly nosy about other people’s lives but too shy to talk to them. So books let people from across worlds and centuries talk to me.

I read because I am a writer, and a teenager, so I still am finding my own style of writing, so I read to learn more and look at other writing styles. I take writing styles and mash them up into my own, I read because it help me write.

I read for fun and to learn. I read to calm my mind and to relax. I read to explore different perspectives and worlds. And finally, I read because it’s good for my brain.

Pleasure

I’ve been following the war in Ukraine since it started and One thing I saw in an interview stuck with me, because it explains my reading style so well - I read to understand, and I read to escape. I’m interested in history, biology, social sciences, so I will read non-fiction books: essays, biographies, monographs, popular science books. I read classics and literary fiction partially in the same vein - to educate myself (besides the pure reading pleasure), to understand the era, to understand what we took from them etc. I love learning, I love the different perspectives, the nuance, the ability to understand and have a bigger picture. Then I read escapist books - fantasy, romance, fairytales, fairytales/myths retellings, some gothic fiction, sometimes fanfiction etc - life is too dreary and sometimes all I need to read about is HEA BS that makes me feel good. I found that for me, both takes are necessary. I don’t want to escape only, and I don’t want to read serious books only.

To me reading is like breathing. I always read, I must read. If I haven't been reading for awhile I don't feel good.
When my children were little, the only time I could read was before bed. I would read far into the night.
This has been my life since I was about 12, and they didn't get new Nancy Drew's in the library fast enough.
I am 67 now and can read, and do read to my heart's content.

I love big ideas

Stories. Our species most ancient entertainment.

I recently picked up reading in my spare time. I only read books for book reports in highschool 15+ years ago. It's a way of enjoying a story that isn't screen related was my biggest reason to start again. I work at a computer and also play videogames. Sometimes I just don't want to stare at a screen and be entertained.

I just got back into reading this year to get me off my phone some. It's worked and I've realized that books are much better than any movie or show can do when it comes to describing a story. So I read as I think it's a good hobby better than other ways I've wasted my time and also for the imagination aspect.

At the base level it's always a nice escape.

For me I break it down into the 4 E's.

. Enrichment

. Education

. Enlightenment

. Entertainment

Sometimes the best books contain all 4

Because through characters and situations in books I learn about myself and about the possibilities ahead. One example is one secondary character in a novel led me to purchase an online udemy course for aspiring music composers such as myself…

I love books.

Because I have ADHD; drawing and reading are the only things that I can focus on for more than a few minutes. Plus, major artistic inspiration can be found in most books, so its a double hobby win

Because it’s fun! I love getting into a new story and meeting all the characters and exploring their world and following them on their adventures. It’s good for my brain but honestly I just have a blast with most books

Because it's fun and makes me imagine

Reading is the ultimate connection with another mind's intelligence and imagination. Every library is a fabulous storehouse of this kind of treasure.

I just love good stories.

It started as escapism. Who doesn’t want to imagine a world of magic and adventures and romance? Then I found others felt the same way too and soon I was sharing new worlds with other passionate readers.

Now I read because it reminds me of a time I can’t get back to with the bookish friends I miss.

I think I read because I'm broken, in a lot o pieces. Reading gives me a chance to reconfigure those pieces into a lot of things positive.

bored as hell

I love the emotions and getting so involved in another world. Also looking at the technique, I love seeing how authors can create a atmosphere with just words.

why do you breathe? but yes for me it is to explorer other lives, other perspectives, other realities and worlds. For me it the same as why people watch TV or anime, I find reading a lot more immersive and enjoyable than both.

Mostly to distract myself from chronic pain. Works wonders

Because i cannot do anything else at 3 am while feeding my baby. Honestly, this is a blessing in disguise because I'm back to reading a lot like when i was a kid.

Reading just gives me a sense of comfort and while I'm reading, I learn more perspectives, lives and realities around the world.

Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann

I’m an introvert and social interactions drain me a lot. Reading has taught me more than most of the superficial and some of the deep conversations I have with people.

I read because I like to know how the title is connected to the story

Honestly, to be smarter and it helps me develop discipline. I struggle to read long amounts at a time and its sort of not enjoyable in that sense, but i enjoy the satisfaction of finishing a book and learning something. Im big into history.
Its sort if like the gym for me, i dont enjoy the process but i enjoy the rewards.

Escapism. 100%. Can’t even read Non fiction lately 😞

you've said it. i read for the same reasons. reading as an escapism would be similar to those playing video games to escape to the virtual world for respite or having the license to do things that you can't do in the real world.

for me, i enjoy entering another world in my mind, where i get to observe the cultural, social, historical, political etc., of the setting of the book especially if it's a classic. for fiction, i get to get acquainted with the characters, feel what they feel and even experience a sense of loss when i've completed the book i.e. having a friend/family i've been hanging out with after work or during commute. same applies to non-fiction, especially if it's a biography. both fiction and non-fiction are also rich in themes that teach you about life - morality and mortality.

to sum it up, books basically allow you to live multiple lives - travel to places and in different times. they are very enriching. i read, like you mentioned, to learn, to form my own judgement on issues that are raised and most importantly, it makes me a better person just by accumulating knowledge. knowledge teaches you humility because the more you learn about things, the more you realise there's a whole lot more you don't know.

I read because I was a broke little Mexican kid with no TV or internet and a drug dealer of a father who constantly had us in shit situations. I was raised in an environment that you wouldn't feel safe in as an adult, let alone as a child, so I read to escape. I left the cold, hard streets and swapped em for the forests of the Mirkwood and the slopes of Mount Doom. Court dates and prison visits became the Kingsroad and the Wall. To this day, I use them to escape when I need to, and I pray my own children find their own, different reasons to read.

I read because it's entertaining, because I love words and language, because once I fell in love with reading and books it became like breathing for me.

I was watching a lot of YouTube for video essays. And then I realized I could just be reading a more comprehensive analysis that these essays are based off in the first place.

Not only that instead of watching an 10-20 hours of a single tv show I could read 2-4 books in that same time. (Audiobooks are often 12 hours but I can enjoy them at double speed but I can visually read at about 2.5x the speed).

I consume a moderate amount of fiction in an attempt to experience every aspect of the human condition before I die.

Additionally, most media is flavorless, formulaic, and commercialized. I find that reading a book is the best way to get inside somebody else's head under my terms.

Italo Calvino's Why Read the Classics, or why read at all, Nabokov's books, Martin Amis's essays and talks about the pleasure of reading and writing illuminate this question - at least for me.

You want the honest truth,it is the last artistic medium that hasn’t been completely railed by corporations

There's a wonderful passage in Marcel Proust's novel *In Search of Lost Time* where the narrator describes why he enjoys reading so much. It's fairly lengthy, but it goes a long way to pin down why I think reading is so wonderful, so I'll quote it here -

"Those afternoons contained more dramatic events than does, often, an entire lifetime. These were the events taking place in the book I was reading; it is true that the people affected by them were not "real," as Françoise said. But all the feelings we are made to experience by the joy or the misfortune of a real person are produced in us only through the intermediary of an image of that joy or that misfortune; the ingeniousness of the first novelist consisted in understanding that in the apparatus of our emotions, the image being the only essential element, the simplification that would consist in purely and simply abolishing real people would be a decisive improvement.

A real human being, however profoundly we sympathize with him, is in large part perceived by our senses, that is to say, remains opaque to us, presents a dead weight which our sensibility cannot lift. If a calamity should strike him, it is only in a small part of the total notion we have of him that we will be able to be moved by this; even more, it is only in a part of the total notion he has of himself that he will be able to be moved himself. The novelist's happy discovery was to have the idea of replacing these parts, impenetrable to the soul, by an equal quantity of immaterial parts, that is to say, parts which our soul can assimilate. What does it matter thenceforth if the actions, and the emotions, of this new order of creatures seem to us true, since we have made them ours, since it is within us that they occur, that they hold within their control, as we feverishly turn the pages of the book, the rapidity of our breathing and the intensity of our gaze.

And once the novelist has put us in that state, in which, as in all purely internal states, every emotion is multiplied tenfold, in which his book will disturb us as might a dream but a dream more lucid than those we have while sleeping and whose memory will last longer, then see how he provokes in us within one hour all possible happinesses and all possible unhappinesses just a few of which we would spend years of our lives coming to know and the most intense of which would never be revealed to us because the slowness with which they occur prevents us from perceiving them (thus our heart changes, in life, and it is the worst pain; but we know it only through reading, through our imagination: in reality it changes, as certain natural phenomena occur, slowly enough so that, if we are able to observe successively each of its different states, in return we are spared the actual sensation of change)."

I learned to read early, and from then on anytime I had a spare moment I was reading whatever was around. I was one of those kids that read the cereal boxes at the breakfast table. I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and I recently realized that reading was initially my way of staying out of trouble, whenever I had to sit still or was bored. Then it was to satisfy my enormous curiosity. At first it was mostly fiction about subjects that interested me, such as horses, or interesting facts about the world. Or the reader’s digest condensed books that my grandparents always had around. I discovered science fiction and fantasy in middle school, and that was an even better fix, as it expanded my imagination.

I gradually started reading for pleasure less; I think it’s because there were so many non-fiction things that I needed to read - first to learn all I could about my ADHD, then about parenting (especially helping my autistic son), then other philosophical and spiritual questions in my life, so that I almost forgot the joy of reading for pleasure. One reason I joined this subReddit was to discuss the books I have loved in order to rekindle that joy, and hopefully to get recommendations for new books to try.

Edit: it’s late and my thoughts are skipping.

I read because I enjoy a good story, (fiction), or I want to learn something. (Nonfiction)

Also, In 1994, I made a new year's resolution to read more often, and I kept it. I've read every year for the last 29 years!

I want to live 1000 lives before I die. And it’s the best way to enrich your vocabulary.