Constant reader reports ...

When people ask me what I do, I say I'm a writer, but being a reader is actually closer to my true identity. The actual work of writing is nearly always sheer drudgery, and the profession of writing is precarious and ill-paid, but reading always affords real pleasure. If I were forced to never write again, I wouldn't like it, but I'd adjust. If I were forced to never read again—I simply don't know what I would do with myself. The idea is simply too alien to even consider.

I am always reading something. I frequently dine in public alone with a book. (When I had a girlfriend, we would go out to restaurants and read and eat together in silence, which always amazed the wait staff.) I never leave the house without a book in my pocket or in my car; after all, you never know when you'll have to wait five minutes, and far better to spend that time reading than just waiting. I really can't understand it when I see people in restaurants, eating or drinking by themselves, and just staring into space, doing nothing.

I'm pretty sure that makes me a rarity in today's world. Even the bookish people I know don't really read all that much. God knows few people read for pleasure nowadays. I much prefer honest uneducated illiterates to middle-class educated illiterates. The honest illiterate may read twice a year, and he or she may only read People or Lowrider magazine, but at least they read what they read because they enjoy it. The middle-class educated illiterate, who only reads books of guaranteed quality that will improve them, are the real death of literature.

A friend once announced to me with great solemnity, that she was going to read a book that summer and she wanted me to select a really good book that would be worth the time investment. As if reading a book were a grand cultural experience that you might take in once a year, like going to the opera or traveling to Rome.