It will come as no surprise to any regular reader to be reminded that I’m extraordinarily passionate about reading. And while I accept that I might tend to get a bit overexcited about a good book, I was still shocked this week to be shown, not once but twice, that there are millions of people out there who are not interested in picking up a book at all.

Reading problems from a blog post and my students

First off, I read a Zen Habits post on instilling the love of reading. It’s a great post giving useful ideas to get both children and adults to enjoy reading, both by making it a habit and finding ways to make it a real pleasure, but the fact that such a post needs to be written still puzzles me. I’m sorry, but don’t books just beat movies and TV series and computer games hands down? When you read a novel it’s all up to you – you conjure up your own mental picture of exactly how the characters and setting look, you can connect to the characters and feel empathy for them, you can’t wait to find out what happens in the end, and the words – they’re just beautiful.

But clearly not everybody thinks this way. The second incident this week happened in my ESL class. I’d talked to my students about having a “magic hour”, a concept that came in our textbook and asked you to think about what you would do if you magically had an extra hour in your week, one that was yours to enjoy exactly how you wanted. Two students near the front of the class described reading a book as the ultimate way to spend their magic hour, and while I nodded in agreement, the rest of the class practically booed them. Several of them protested that they absolutely *hated* reading and hadn’t picked up a book in years.

Can you teach people to love reading?

All this got me wondering about a love of reading – is it nature or nurture? I’m sure how you’re brought up as a lot to do with it – my parents surrounded with me books from before I can even remember. When she was a child, my mother would risk punishment by reading late at night with a torch under her blanket. In the future, I’ll be doing my utmost to make sure my children love books. Otherwise I’ll trade them in for new ones.

I have a vested interest in making sure the world continues to be full of readers. After all, writers need readers, otherwise we might as well stop writing. So don’t come near me saying you’re not a fan of books, or I’ll be bombarding you with books you can’t help but love until you change your mind.