Posted on Apr 2nd, 2008
by 
Tsuya
Confessions of a book lover… This post has been brewing in the back of my brain since I read Diane's post Do You Read? referencing Debi's blog on what it means to be a reader. But since I've been captivated by the new zBooks functionality here on zaadz, and feverishly entering a sampling of my favorite books, quotations, and recommendations, as well as delightedly perusing others' contributions and recommendations, I have been thinking more and more about what it means to be 'a reader.'
When I passed the two hundred mark on my bookshelf without even breaking stride (and these are just the really, really good ones, mind you; I don't see the point in wasting much time with the mediocre), I knew I would probably have to say something about this compulsion… this addiction… this passion, known as reading.
I am sure that there are many different definitions as to what constitutes a reader, but I'm going with: eclectic, voracious, and insatiable. After all, anyone can read, and in this culture and age we generally take it as a given that most people do. At least in school, when they are forced to. But to truly be a reader is something a little different than just reading books, or even reading a lot of books. I see so many people that have read a lot, but just of one author, or in one or two genres. This is just SAD to me. And that certainly doesn't constitute being a reader in my mind. There is just such a wonderful abundance of material, such a wealth of riches out there to explore… Sure, I understand finding an author and just having to read every single one of their titles, and I mean, like, yesterday. Or wanting to know everything possible about the evolutionary neuroscience of cetaceans, say. But to stop there, to get fixated on just one book or author or subject just seems MADNESS to me! CAVE AB HOMINE UNIOU LIBRI (Beware the man of one book!!!)
I think being a reader, in the true sense of the word, is maybe a type of learning disorder. It's not that readers can't learn in any other way; quite to the contrary, they seem to have access to MORE ways of learning, of absorbing information and intelligence, than most people. Maybe not a disorder per se, but you get my drift. There's just something different about readers, beyond fluency with the written word. Of course, reading alone constitutes neither knowledge or intelligence on its own, a fact true readers tend to recognize more keenly than anyone; because they KNOW just how much is 'out there' available in the field of human understanding, they tend to be hyper-conscious of how little they know, of how much there is still to learn, and how delightfully delicious the whole process really is.
So, readers are eclectic: they read widely. Although they may dip deeply into a few dearly beloved topics, they are always ready to try something new, and are usually perusing books on vastly varying subjects at the same time. It's all connected, after all. The juxtaposition in a title like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, for example, so widely copied, will intrigue an eclectic reader. It's not just about novelty, either. A reader is the last person you will usually find reading something that is trendy, or 'hot.' They will definitely cast a weather eye over the new releases table, but then they usually head straight back to the stacks in pursuit of more elusive quarry. Once the hooferah over a title has died down, and it seems more clear what may be genuinely worthy of one's time, a reader will pick up those popular reads, but generally not until then. They may appreciate the Harry Potter effect (for they love an underdog who triumphs, and what reader would not exult the sensation created by JK Rowling's books, the likes of which haven't been seen in this country for generations), but unless they got in on the ground floor before a craze strikes, they will often defer reading such books, no matter how fine, until after the furore subsides a bit. They're kind of like savvy stock traders in that regard.
And readers are voracious. They're never going to turn up their noses at that Harry Potter for instance, just because that's juvenile (can you hear the sneer?) fiction. A true reader will read anything. Anything. Except for what they are forced to, of course. There is nothing a reader resents more than being told what to read. They will detest it on principle, as anyone would. (lo! let us lament the poor, benighted middle- and high-school students even now being forced to read something not of their own choosing! 'Oh, unhappy people') All those book clubs springing up like kudzu, for example, (and bless their hearts!) are unlikely to contain true readers. Readers don't need a luncheon date as an excuse to read. You can't stop them. This is truly their nasty little secret: they can't stop reading. It's a compulsion, an addiction. The newspaper, junk mail, billboards as they are driving, cereal boxes over the breakfast table, printed shower curtains as they use the facilities, even shampoo bottles with their multisyllabic chemic soups of syllables will do in a pinch. If you're used to taking in printed information in this way, you do it unconsciously, just by having your eyes open. You will often hear a reader say 'I read/heard/saw that somewhere…' and trail off. They will be familiar with obscure facts which they have no recollection of ever collecting, which they didn't even know they had in their heads until it pops out of their mouths. They are like synesthetics, who perceive sensory data in unexpectedly diverse ways. Non-readers will boggle, 'how do you know that?', and they often can't answer. Just do. Read a book somewhere. Or maybe a shampoo bottle…
And, too, readers are insatiable. Does this sound like the same thing as voracious? It bears repeating. Insatiable: unable to get enough. Unstoppable. A reader is much like the veriest heroin addict, only their drug of choice is legal. And while some hide their addiction well, managing to function somewhat normally in society, just under the surface burns a roaring furnace of want, an inferno of need to read one… last… book. Or chapter, or paragraph, or sentence (some times they will even, clandestinely, stay home from work to do so, a sure sign of addiction). Sometimes being a reader runs in families, sometimes it doesn't. Most real readers have been so since childhood, although all seem to agree it is never too late, one is never immune. Most had someone in their lives early on (sometimes a parent, usually not) who encouraged them to read, or put just the right book in their hands. (Readers tend to remember who put which books in their hands, or at least, certainly, which books they were, those ones that got them hooked.) When the affliction starts in childhood, it is especially pernicious and difficult to eradicate. A typical childhood bedtime exchange (or, bargaining with an addict) might go like this:
“Lights off” “Five more minutes”
(five minutes later)
“Lights off” “Five more minutes”
(five minutes later)
“Lights off” “Five more minutes”
“You said that ten minutes ago” “Then give me ten more minutes”
“All right, but that will make twenty minutes, and then it's really time for bed” “mmm…”
(twenty minutes later)
“Lights off” “Five more minutes”
“NO. I've given you half an hour, now its' time for bed.” “mmm…”
“I'm turning the light off.” “No!”
“It's time for BED!” “But, Moooooom (whining), I'm not DONE yet. One more chapter”
“All right. ONE more chapter. But then it's lights OUT”
(twenty minutes later)
“Have you finished your chapter yet (sarcastic)?” “mmmmf… almost done”
“No 'almost done.' It's been an hour! I'M going to bed. Lights OUT. Good NIGHT.”
(shuts off light, leaves)
(wee figure creeps silently out of bed, turns on light, resumes reading…)
This insatiability lends a quality of promiscuity to the reader; a willingness to be, at a moment's notice, seduced by a new book, genre, or idea. It gives a certain unmistakable sparkle to one's eyes, a merry twinkle, a lightness of step, a joie de vivre (especially in bookstores). Unfortunately, people and obstacles often become invisible. Glasses have to be worn to enable the fatigued optic muscles to focus beyond the next page of text. But if you ever catch a reader's attention - jump back! They will bring their towering focus to bear, and it can be formidable. For a reader often burns with an inner fire (by which we recognize one another). They may drift along lackluster through tiresome chores until they can get their next fix, but mention a good read, and see how they light up inside! There is a smoldering intensity of focused intelligence to readers - not intelligence born of adopting others' dogmatic data, but a keenness of perception honed to a razor's edge by developing their own powers of discernment.
This discernment is very important to readers. A reader will judge a book by its cover and make no apologies for doing so, as they sort through mountains of information. But they will never dismiss anything entirely without cause because they possess above all that rarest of qualities: an open mind. They keep an open mind, and have a much greater control over the focal depth of their awareness than that of their eyes. They often appear to go through life half-shuttered, gazes lidded and mysterious as they slow the outer stimulus to a trickle in order to process, parse, and refer internally all the data they have received (and so as not scare the bejesus out of others). But they can also dilate their awareness in a snap to full on engage in life in a way that is often startling to those who don't know them.
Readers also tend to be non-dogmatic. So much so, they tend to have an almost allergic reaction to dogma (or surety, or certainty) in any form. They KNOW there's another perspective out there. And they never expect others to have read the same books they have, or find difficulty speaking with them if they have not. On the contrary, the true reader has usually experienced so many different walks of life through reading that they are remarkably easy to talk with. They know a little something about everything, and what they don't know, they are fascinated to learn. They won't develop a lingo known only to themselves or condescend to those they are speaking with, or assume a superior knowledge because they've read about something. They're hyper-aware of the gulfs that can develop between people over the use of words, and they tend to naturally mirror, or pattern, the diction and vocabulary of those they are speaking with to communicate most effectively, and to subtly test those they encounter for comprehension before saying too much that might be distancing.
While people who are widely read often come across immediately as authoritative in some subtle way, if you talk with them for a while, you will usually find that they are not merely well-informed, but thoughtful, knowledgeable, even wise, but always unprepossessing.
Continually consuming not just information, but information on a variety of subjects, from all different points of view, forces them to incorporate different types of knowledge into a cohesive, yet ever-adapting whole. They understand that learning (knowledge, comprehension, education, wisdom) - is something you have to build for yourself, within yourself, like a muscle; it's not something you GET from any particular book or institution or school of thought, like a virus. They can be quite disciplined in building that base of learning, if appearing fickle (see voracious, insatiable, promiscuous, above!) in other regards.
Readers also tend to have very strong relationships with others, whether with other readers or not. They value human connection very highly, and will tend to have fewer, closer friends rather than more whom they are not closely connected with in some way. They also tend to value immaterial things more highly than material ones, for they know intimately the value of ideas:
You may have tangible wealth untold,
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you could never be;
I know someone who told stories to me.
-Cynthia Pearl Maus
Whether rich or poor, they tend to have spent a goodly proportion of their money on books, for though they may heavily patronise libraries, they also value quality and tend to love books, the objects, themselves, and become increasingly persnickety about distinctions lost on most people, over things like bindings, imprints, editions, and certainly translations. And they tend to be generous with their books and their ideas, sharing them freely, knowing that 'all the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own' (Goethe) They will lend books to others, buy books for others, encourage others to read, and oftentimes will make instant or even lifelong friends over the shared love of a particular book or idea.
Anyway, that's my first attempt to describe the natural history of the elusive 'reader' creature. Just like with 'friend,' there should probably be more nuanced words in English to describe such things and avoid confusion. But that's what I think being a reader's about, and I plead guilty to some or all of the above charges, and know others who do as well. And of course, I'm happy to spread/share the addiction, or at least the habit, or at the very least recommend some good books for those who, while they may not be addicts, may still enjoy a ripping good yarn every so often…
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Nancy Pearl
October 2008 
