I'm sure you have heard this refrain before.
"I used to be a voracious reader in high school, but now I have trouble even finishing a book."
Well, in high school I used to read three books at the same time and now I absolutely can't stand books. I think they're garbage. I think books were really popular when TV, video games, and entertainment in general were not the strong contenders for time well spent that they are today. But now I can watch a three and a half hour well researched video essay on why evolutionary psychology is a complete fabrication or a six hour video essay on the comprehensive history of gamergate, or a two hour video essay on gorefield. I have access to virtually every song imaginable plus recommendations, every movie I could ever want to see, unlimited true crime documentaries, rifftrax, all for free mind you.
And don't get me started on television. The Mandalorian, The Boys, Bee and Puppycat, Adventure Time, Black Sails, Fallout, Harley Quinn, The Last of Us, Penny Dreadful, Steven Universe, She Ra, and these are just shows I watched. The movies I discovered once I started exploring foreign languages like The Roundup, Last Train to Bhusan, The Handmaiden, Blood Tea and Red String, Mad God, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Blue is the Warmest Color, and Come and See completely changed my ideas about movie making.
Videos games have been even better. Absolutely the best 18 months ever for video games. Anyone who says otherwise plays online multiplayer only games or perennial triple A swill. You have Balatro where the harder you cheat at poker the better you do, Inscryption where you're trapped in a log cabin with a murderer and forced to play his home made card game with him and the cards start talking to you to help you escape, Cult of The Lamb where you have to manage a cult that worships you and build infrastructure and feed and groom your followers and create rules and culture for the cult to make them happy and loyal, Brotato a brilliant survivors-like with amazing combos and decision points all for $5, Mudrunner this weird trucking simulator about hauling through unicorporated terrain with realistic geo physics thats weirdly addictive, Unpacking a game that uses the simple task of unpacking your things to tell a wordless story about the biggest moments in your life.
But saying all that, I couldn't tell you a single book I gave an eff about in the past couple years. I don't want recommendations because that's not why I'm here and frankly I think recommendations are completely worthless. I don't think most people are capable of understanding what others would find enjoyable and what media might be a more singular taste.
I just want to prove that I can in fact enjoy things if the mood is right and the quality is on point, that I don't hate reading and in fact used to read obsessively, and that I have a willingness to read again because I feel like I'm missing out on quality experiences.
But this comes back to my original question, in the year 2024, do you think someone can reach a point where they can no longer physically enjoy reading books even if they used to enjoy reading books when they were younger?
by Tantra_Charbelcher