Rant: Non-readers Aren't Lazy

Obviously, I'm a huge reader. I love books. I love the escape they offer, the ability to travel without leaving my house, the presentations of culture, ideas, emotions that are shared on the page. But what about the people who don't like to read? What is wrong with them?

My answer? Nothing. Reading for pleasure isn't for everyone. And there are a lot of reasons for this. But not everyone seems to understand that. For example:

Jason Pinter asked what can be done to "reach" these TV loving non-readers in a recent tweet.

Wondering if people who watch tv but don't read, or hesitant/non-readers, would find shorter/serialized books accessible. How 2 reach them?

First, I dispute the fact that TV watching people who don't like to read have short attention spans (as seems to be implied by that tweet). TV viewers are a diverse population. Look at the number of channels available and the varied content they have.  Sure, we live in a society that has information overload and shortening patience. But I don't get the correlation between TV watching and the need for shorter books.

We're talking apples and oranges here, Mr. Pinter. Different media. Reading is a relaxing way to spend time for some people. For others, it's work. TV can be mindless, but it isn't necessarily so. One has nothing whatsoever to do with the other.

Why don't people like to read? Some don't have the time. Some don't have the money. Some people don't find it relaxing. Some have learning disabilities that make reading a chore.

On a personal level, my husband is a non-reader.  We recently discussed our reading experiences, and I was astonished to discover that he doesn't experience what I do when he reads. For me, reading is like a TV screen in my head. I get a mental image of the action from a novel in my head as I read. For him, that doesn't happen. But, as we recently discovered, he *does* get that with audiobooks. Making the books shorter won't help him enjoy reading more. Serializing them and making him wait for each installment won't help either.

I don't consider non-readers to be lazy, dumb, or otherwise lacking in attention spans. Accessibility isn't usually the issue. Lack of interest is. I know that most non-readers have hobbies or interests that I don't share, too. And I get quite tired of the literary community looking at non-readers as some form of plague upon the intellectual future of mankind.