LitRx: Reader’s Guilt

All Lit Up presents LitRx, literary prescriptions for all of life’s problems. If you have a question about books, life, booklife, or any of those permutations, send us a question. If selected, we’ll post it, anonymously, and give you an answer (and maybe a book suggestion, too) that we hope really helps.This month’s question:i’ve been following everyone’s #95books on Twitter, and mine’s looking more like a #30books 🙁–Gaining Understandable Ire with Literary TwitterDear GUILT,Ah, social media. It’s the source of so much Schadenfreude and, yet, it can make us feel guilty for a lot of our choices. Just ask parents, pet owners, and any woman who’s ever dared to hold an opinion online; you’ll be subjected to a lot of overt judgement, and more still simmering below that glowing, eye-ruining screen’s surface. Add to it that social media takes time away from those things it “dictates” we “should” be doing – whether cooking organic meals for our babies/fur-babies or reading the latest literary doorstopper in a night – and we’re in a Catch-22 for the modern age.The good news is that the literary community is so busy being enthusiastic about new books coming out and Etsy entrepreneurs making Wu-Tang and Margaret Atwood references on t-shirts (this is a hypothetical example, but someone please make this happen), that we guarantee no one is tracking how much you’re reading. And if someone is, they’re too busy being your creepy stalker to read themselves… don’t be friends with that person.Hopefully, that takes the external guilt out of the picture. But what about your inner-guilt, GUILT? Why are you feeling the way you do? What’s wrong with reading 30 books in a year, or 15, or 5, or 1? Pulling in our shingle as a literary bookstore for a moment (only after an obligatory BUY BOOKS, EVERYONE): reading even one book is a huge deal. While BookNet Canada reported 88% of Canadian respondents read at least one book in 2013, that means that 12% didn’t. In the US, the number was lower (76% reported reading at least one book). We all know people who don’t read any books, ever, and found apt visual representation of them in these stock images (that girl doesn’t even have a book open! She’s already given up).

So that you read one book is cause for celebration. Moreover, did you like that book you read (or those 30, in your case, but again, GUILT, who’s counting)? Did it challenge you or your preconceived notions about the world? Was it an old favourite that you rediscovered? Did it provide escape from the more mundane aspects of modern life – including, dare we say, social media? That’s pretty much the purpose of reading, right there.We could go on, but we’re digging into your reading time. Go pick up something fantastic and enjoy your literary 2016. Just lay off the counting, maybe.Yours in reading,LitRx