The Nauseating Truth About Literature

There are people who have an aversion to literature and despise it with a passion. They may try to prove that every other kind of writing is better than the “stupid, pretentious nonsense” that writers churn out. Others believe that anybody can write better than a professional writer, so why bother with all the time and effort required? Partition is the opposite of? There is no denying that there are some seriously good books in the world, but for these reasons and many more, some people just don’t like reading in general.

1. The prose is so beautiful that it takes too long to read.

Some have time to sit down, but can’t find that hour or two of time to read a book. They might go the route of picking up film adaptations of books and hoping they can get the point of the story rather than trying to wade through all those descriptions and metaphors that are so difficult to understand. Others may have a little time every day, but find themselves too tired at the end of it to pick up even a short story.

2. There’s nothing good on TV anyway.

I’m sure some of you can relate- you want to sit down and read a good story, but there is nothing decent on television. This would probably be one of the reasons that people don’t like reading in the first place. It would take too much time to sit through all those minutes-hour or two hours of commercials.

3. I don’t know what’s going on in it…

Some people have a problem with a good book because they can’t figure out what is happening in it, nor do they care to try. Some of these skeptics make up their minds that they prefer watching television over reading anything at all. They’d rather be entertained than think.

4. It’s all the same.

Every time I catch myself saying this-I’ll just stop. I mean, what is the difference between a novel, a short story or an essay? Is there a huge difference between them? Yes, there is, but it’s not that big of a deal to me. If you can’t make out the difference between these three categories of writing, then you don’t need to be reading books in the first place.

5. You wouldn’t understand it anyway…

When somebody refers to a book as something that you wouldn’t understand, they are usually referring to it being too dense or incomprehensible. This kind of “literature” is only enjoyed by its author and his friends, along with the occasional philosophy professor. I’m not saying that everything needs to be predictable and shallow, but when it’s so abstract that you have no idea what is going on-it’s just not worth your time. 

6. There’s no story/point…

Some people think this about certain books like The Great Gatsby . They just don’t think any of Shakespeare’s plays are worth their time either. Only Shakespeare can do that-and it takes a lot of work to make a play like Hamlet . There’s no point to the book other than to be considered one of the greatest works ever written. Other people say things like this about books that are written for children, but those books are just plain boring. 

7. It’s just all talk.

Some people think that books, especially fiction, are full of talk and no substance or facts. They consider such writing to be fluff and pointless nonsense. Even if they do read it, they’ll only do so just long enough to get the point before putting it down and going back to their television show. 

8. I don’t have time to read it…

Some people say they just can’t find the time to read a book because they are too busy doing something else. These people do tend to be writers themselves, but I’ve also noticed that they tend to be older- possibly because they know that their future may depend on it. It takes a long time to write a book and edit it, not only for them but for anyone else they share their writing with. If you don’t have enough time in your day, then why try to do something so difficult?

9. It’s too hard…

Some people think that books require so much effort and effort from the reader is in itself unnecessary. They have enough to do in their life without trying to read something from a book. The other reason why some people might shy away from books is because they think it’s too hard and will take too long to do.

10. You can’t get the full experience…

Some people don’t like reading physically bound books at all, or anything on a computer screen for that matter. They say that it’s not the same as holding a book in your hands, turning the pages and smelling that new book smell . Some of them even like holding books in their own hands instead of on an e-reader.