Literary Blog Hop: How Do You Do That Reading Thing You Do?

I'm not positive, but this might be my first Literary Blog Hop of the year.  I miss this one, now that it only happens monthly instead of weekly.  The lovely bloggers at The Blue Bookcase sponsor it and ask of their participants a bookish question (or three) for us all to discuss: How do you find time to read, what's your reading style, and where do you think reading literature should rank in society's priorities?

Firstly, though I am a bookseller, I work long hours and none of those hours can be filled by reading a book.  I hate to burst anybody's romanticized bubble about bookselling, but it's true.  We do not read on the job.  It's still a pretty amazing job, despite that lack of being paid to read. Because I'm a bookseller, though, you might guess that I am a person who makes reading a priority in her life, and you'd be right.  I read every night in bed, some days at lunch, and on my days off I read for a few hours.  I also listen almost exclusively to audio books on my daily commute. If I'm waiting in a restaurant or a movie theatre for the rest of my party to arrive, I'm reading on my phone. Last week I had to serve jury duty and I sat in the selection room with my book, armed with earplugs against the onslaught of the television's blare. I used to watch a lot of television.  Now I just do a lot of reading.

Reading style: not sure how to answer that.  I read pretty widely for my job, but when I read for myself it's mostly literary fiction, some YA, some narrative non-fiction.  Occasionally some chick lit. I'm much less particular when it comes to my audio books than my regular books. I read mostly in my bed, but my husband, god bless him, built a house with an actual library in it and sometimes I read in there.

Society's priorities: now that's a serious question and perhaps hard to answer without sounding elitist. I love Amanda's answer on Dead White Guys and I could just say "ditto" to what she said. But for me, I think everybody should read more. Full stop. There are scientific studies that indicate that people who read (particularly fiction, but any regular reading will do) demonstrate more empathy in real life than people who don't read regularly. And I constantly oscillate back & forth between thinking that it's okay if people read crap as long as they're reading (Twilight, celebrity gossip magazines, etc) and thinking that reading crap doesn't count as *real* reading.

There's a line from the movie Shadowlands, the film about C. S. Lewis, that says "we read to know we're not alone" and I couldn't agree more with that.  Somehow I believe that anybody who says they don't enjoy reading just hasn't found the right book yet. I think reading is just as important and instrumental for knowing others (or "the other") as it is for knowing yourself.  I can't tell you the number of times I've read passages in books and exclaimed, "Yes! Exactly!" There's a euphoria in recognizing yourself in another person's words. And then the euphoria fades, and if you're self-aware enough, the inevitable questions follow: what does that say about me? Why do I feel/act/think that way? Is it a good thing? Or is that something I should work on?

So read more. Observe more. Books help you pay attention to your interior life and keep you aware of what's happening in the outside world. Books can educate or entertain and the best ones do both. Damnit, why doesn't everybody just sit down, shut up, and read?