{"id":80,"date":"2012-06-27T16:54:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T22:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/?p=80"},"modified":"2012-06-28T16:11:12","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T22:11:12","slug":"why-do-we-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrigomes.com\/literaryexchange\/2012\/06\/27\/why-do-we-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do We Read?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently participated in the \u201cDigital Publishing Virtual Summit,\u201d a virtual conference, meaning a conference where you listen to the speakers through your computer speakers, and type your questions to be answered at the end, hopefully.<\/p>\n

It was overall a very good experience, even though I didn\u2019t quite agree with a few ideas I heard. One of them was the notion that people read to either escape or avoid pain. That concept baffled me. It may be partially truth, but I can\u2019t agree that it\u2019s universal. The speaker, Mr. Jim Edwards said, people read fiction to scape pain, and nonfiction to avoid pain.<\/p>\n

The presenter goes on saying that when reading fiction we want to forget our reality. And we read nonfiction to make money, save money, save time, avoid effort, be successful, be popular, feel love, and find social success. Certainly I\u2019ll read a book to learn a better way to do my job, or to help me get better organized, but I\u2019d rather see it in a positive perspective.<\/p>\n

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I read for sheer pleasure.<\/p><\/div>\n

I believe we read fiction for pleasure, and nonfiction to learn and to stay current. A recent research by Pew Internet, with 2,986 respondents age 16 and older, narrowed the main reasons why we read to four: pleasure; to keep up with current events; to research on specific topics that interest us; and for work or school.<\/p>\n

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The basic reasons why people read<\/strong><\/p>\n

Americans cite a variety of motives for their reading, especially when it comes to long-form content like books or magazine articles. It is sometimes the case that different people cite different motives. Generally, better educated Americans who have gone to at least some college and better off Americans who live in households earning over $50,000 are more likely than the less educated and Americans living in poorer households to read for all the reasons we queried:<\/p>\n