Reading: I Just Get Sleepy

Wanting to be a writer, I find it crucial that I understand why people do or do not read. Even still, when I think back to all the people that I have known in my life, I can neatly divide them into categories of readers and non-readers, or rather, people I like and people I don’t like.

There is one embarrassing exception to this rule, which pains me greatly – my sig other. He is a non-reader. I hate to admit this publicly but I guess it’s time that I outed him.

Oh, he knows how to read and occasionally I do catch him in the act. But I hardly think Day Trading for Dummies (ten minutes before falling asleep) counts.

Call me snooty.

And then there’s this CNN article on Americans’ reading habits. Don’t get me wrong. I like to sleep and I too am torn between Internet, TV on demand, Tivo and any other form of entertainment. But what happened to self-improvement? What happened to developing one’s mind?

Scary stat from the article: One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year. Not to their children. Nada. Nothing.

That scares me. I like this schlub:

"I just get sleepy when I read," said Richard Bustos of Dallas, Texas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool.

And I’d rather eat cupcakes all day. I bet he’s fat too!

Meow!

Read it and weep.