Where I rant about what “counts” as reading

This week I keep thinking back to some videos I’ve seen lately. Once again the internet has decided it should have opinions about how people read.

Reading 100 books a year is just consuming, not reading.

Audiobooks don’t count.

Romance isn’t real reading.

Classics count.

Serious books count.

Why do you own so many books?

I’m going to start sitting at a golf course and yelling at the guys in golf carts that they need to walk or it doesn’t count. I’m going to go to yarn stores and tell knitters that scarves aren’t real knitting. Only blankets count.

So what if I read books the way other people watch TV? You don’t remember every show you’ve ever watched. You don’t remember every movie. Nobody questions whether your Netflix habit is real entertainment. These are all things I won’t say to people because I am not the hobby police.

Then there’s the video that said owning 300 books is overconsumption. Is it really worse to overconsume books than clothes? I look at the tables in my local bookstore as a creative outlet for the booksellers. Every display is someone trying to convince me to pick up a story I wasn’t planning to read. Buying a book feels like supporting both the store and the author. This is a hill I choose to die on.

Speaking of overconsuming, I hit 100 books yesterday.

Shout out to The Lowe Job, a cross between the Clinton Oval Office and the Kardashians. It made me laugh, get mad, and cry. It was the perfect 100th read. And the audiobook, which is reading by the way, was excellent.

When we started Chapter One Scene One I thought, “Talking to my friends about books sounds fun.”

What I didn’t realize was that talking is the easy part.

First you read the book. Then watch the adaptation. Make notes. Write the outline. Record. Edit. Make social media. Promote the episode. Then do it all over again.

There’s so much invisible labor behind a podcast.

Once I realized I liked the creative side, one project turned into three. First the podcast. Then TikTok. Then this newsletter that approximately three of you faithfully read every week.

The best part, though, has been the time with my friends. It’s also given me a new way to share my love of books with the world.

I don’t know if talking about books will ever become my actual job.

But somewhere between the podcast, TikTok, and this little newsletter, I accidentally built a life with more books and more friends in it.

That’s not a bad direction to be heading.

See you next Sunday.