In Defence of Reading for Pleasure
If a book is boring, give it away as a gift to someone you don’t like.
Most readers share a precious, yet complex, relationship with books, marked by joy, guilt, discovery, and so much more. Dear Troubled Reader, written by Suresh Menon, is an advice column on all things literature and language. It addresses questions that readers have, from the simple to the profound, treating every question with equal seriousness. You might ask: How do I begin reading? Or is writing a mirror into the writer's world? Expect recommendations from the columnist, remedies for ‘bad’ reading habits, advice on navigating the inevitable reading slump, and much more.
We hope this column becomes a space of hope and companionship for you, the reader. A place that brings you back to your bookshelves with renewed love for reading, greater curiosity about languages, and the desire to discover new voices and fresh literature.
Send your questions via email to editor@the-hyphen.in, or leave a comment below.
I enjoy reading, but I only read genre fiction. Each time I read literary fiction, I feel it is too complex and beyond my understanding, sometimes even boring. How do I overcome this and become a 'serious reader?'
I am not sure if the classification is valid. Books are either good or bad, well-written or badly-written. I love the line from Umberto Eco who said he read detective fiction for the same reason he read philosophy: “To discover who done it.”
What does ‘serious reader’ mean? A reader of serious books? Don’t fall into that trap. Many are stunningly boring. Reading for pleasure is important. If a book is boring, give it away as a gift to someone you don’t like.
Some of our best writers combine genres. Stephen King is a fabulous writer who writes horror novels, Keigo Higashino was an extraordinary writer who wrote detective fiction. Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro has written science fiction. Margaret Atwood uses speculative fiction to comment on the environment, patriarchy and more.
Good novels explore the human condition, the despair, the joy, weakness, temptation, contrition, retribution, redemption. There are good bad books, and bad good books.
We should ignore labels and either read what we enjoy or educate ourselves to recognise layers in fiction writing. Perhaps there is a literature appreciation podcast that will help. There’s a marvellous recent book by George Saunders, “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain” which is a masterclass on how great stories work. That might be a good starting point.
Does reading necessarily make one a good writer?
Not necessarily. Not everyone who reads Orwell or Marquez becomes a good writer. But – and this is the key – they might become better writers.
When I was young, I used to read many stories in Hindi. Now, I can't read as much so my grandson reads out to me from novels or stories sometimes. But he only reads in English. I can understand English but it doesn't feel the same as reading a Hindi story. How can we find something that both of us can enjoy?
Two people are unlikely to respond to literature or art or music in the same way because each brings to the experience a different temperament, varied life experiences, sensitivities, expectations, memories. We bring to reading who we are without being conscious of it. Expecting another person, even your grandson, to enjoy something in the way you do is unfair. Divorce courts are full of cases where one of the spouses has revealed a “my way or the highway” philosophy to the other.
One solution is for you to get someone who reads to you in Hindi while your grandson continues to read what he wants to in English. If it’s absolutely necessary that both must read the same work together and enjoy it simultaneously, one of you must change his language of choice.
When he was a boy of 16, the Canadian writer Alberto Manguel read to Argentine great Jorge Luis Borges, then nearly 60, who was blind. Here’s what he said of the experience, “Borges taught me the generosity of literature, that it can offer you anything you like, and allows you to pick and choose, and not feel obliged to read anything, even best-sellers or the so-called classics.”
Reading to an older person is an act of learning. The latter can gently influence the younger man by explaining why he loves something or doesn’t, what makes him appreciate a passage or what to look out for. “This is why…” is a better alternative to “I say so…”, and can lead to profitable discussions. A one-way street often comes to a dead-end.
