Roger Sutton’s blog, Read Roger, has a link to part of an interview with Sarah Palin about her reading habits. In one of the quotes she says, “If I’m going to read something, for the most part, it’s something beneficial.” His retorts “I am reflexively suspicious of someone who only reads “improving” books and claims to love reading. They are lying about one thing or the other.”
This is true to a large degree. As the title of his blog post states There is no shame in loving the da Vinci code (even if I personally would rather not read it at all).
I wonder if this speaks to authorial intent as well as readerly intent. What does either of them use literature for? Improvement of the reader? Entertainment? Joie de vivre? Revolutionary ideology? Is the act of reading, or at least discussing what one actively reads, so tied up in social status?
So I’ve offered questions, do I have answers. No because I think it comes down to the invidividual and whether they truly enjoy the feel of pages riffling past one’s finger and the feel of the page whist drawing a finger to down to mark a quotation (or the yell of “bugger” as the book falls awkwardly and you have to find the page again)l.