Being friends with a non-reader?!

Mmm I only have a handful of friends who don’t read. Most of the people in my circle, as far as I know, read something — popular science, memoirs, Stephen King, Kazuo Ishiguro, the roasted baby book by Cormac McCarthy, Colleen Hoover, obscure women’s sagas with nondescript WWII era white ladies on the cover.

I don’t care if my friends read books or not. It’s their prerogative. I’ve asked the ones who don’t why, and they said they just don’t like looking at endless seas of words. Fair enough.

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I’d try to understand why and maybe even help nudge them into becoming a reader.

There’s various amounts of reasons why people don’t like reading such as how they’re dyslexic or have other reading disabilities, have aphantasia, or lack interest due to school forcing bad books upon you, and all of these (and others) are understandable. However, as someone who also used to hate reading, I’ve come to find that people only hate it for two reasons:

  1. They can’t get passed their poor reading skills.

If you suffer from a reading disability, you probably don’t like reading simply because you struggle with it. I get that. I grew up being a slow reader and even not 100% comprehending what I read, and that alone made me think reading was dumb. On top of that, I couldn’t form pictures in my head so that didn’t help either. But when I did get into reading, I tried to push through and eventually made the struggles less stressful. I still, sometimes, struggle with comprehending things and I’m still a slow reader, but I’ve improved greatly since I’ve started.

And, not to mention, they forget that there’s various formats. If you don’t like reading actual novels, like you’re interested in the pictures more, there’s comics, graphic novels, and manga. There’s also screenplays and poetry if you’re not interested in the pictured books either. If you have dyslexia or other reading disabilities like that, there’s audiobooks.

  1. They haven’t found something that grasps their attention.

This is priority number one when it comes to reading. Most people, myself included, probably don’t enjoy reading simply because they haven’t found the book that piques their interest. You can’t just pick up a random book and think you’ll like it. And if you’ve picked up dozens of books within genres and ideas that you generally like and didn’t enjoy it, it’s still not reading that’s the problem. Those books probably weren’t your thing. Reading is just like looking for a movie or show to watch—there’s a lot out there, most of which you probably won’t be interested in. Books can be sucky, too. Not every book, no matter its content, is a “good book.” You have to try to see if you’d like it.

These two problems helps me see if I can help them get into reading, and it has sort of worked thus far. My little sister is technically a non-reader, though she has read a few books. Some she hasn’t liked, some she has. She likes reading some books, but reading has never been her favorite hobby. It also doesn’t help that she’s part dyslexic, struggles with reading and writing, and also has aphantasia. But even though she’s not a big reader, she is fine with getting books… particularly poetry ones. She loves poetry or anything that has some kind of philosophy or deep meanings. :sweat_smile: And if she reads that, she’s still considered a reader. Maybe not an avid or big reader like myself, but a reader nonetheless.

I know that it’s not for everyone, like anything else (food, movies, shows, hobbies, etc.) but it does make me a little sad because they tend to miss amazing stories because of it. Especially since a good portion of movies and shows are based off books themselves or turn into books which can lead to more content, especially if you love that show/movie. Like Avatar: the Last Airbender. They ended the show after three seasons, and that was all they had planned. There were still adventures, storylines, and information that still hadn’t been answered… until they made the comics. Through the comics, you finally get to know what happened to Zuko’s mom, you get to see the world after the fall of Firelord Ozai, you get to discover new things about certain people and how the world evolves into what Legend of Korra becomes. But to find these out, you have to read it (unless someone spoils it for you)…

I don’t know. Perhaps I’m in over my head, but since reading and writing are like my whole personality it seems like, I want to find a deeper connection with people who enjoy it, too, which is why I try to see why they don’t like it and maybe change their mind on it. But I get it. It’s not for everyone, and if they truly don’t like it, I’ll have to leave it alone.

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