I was reading M.J. Rose’s explanation on why college kids are a bad market for your novel, and it reminded me of when my wife was in college. She was always studying. And when she wasn’t studying, she was working to pay for books, tuition, and other bills.
Novels were the absolute last thing on her list of priorities.
Worse though, her required reading during college made it so that reading was transformed from an ‘enjoyable leisurely activity’ and instead became ‘work.’
Although she’s no longer burdened by the task of studying, one of the long-lasting effects of college on her is that reading is still just another form of work. It ranks up there with doing the dishes, and other mundane chores.
I have heard of other people who were similarly burned out on reading by their journey through college. The very idea of it gives me chills.
Do colleges destroy reading and readers by turning the very act of reading into an agonizing chore?
Hmm…when I was in college I belonged to the school’s SF club, the major asset of which was a reading library of some thousand or so sf and fantasy books. We all read a lot. And so did most of my close friends (most of whom weren’t in the sf club). Maybe we were an unusual set?
No. Lots of things might sour people on reading, but generally it’s one of those life-long habits formed in earlier years that even a prolonged stint of higher education can’t snuff out.
In fact, while I experienced a similar dimming of my own appreciation of reading through portions of high school and college, education does more than its share to stimulate reading, not suppress it. Sure, I only skimmed over some of the “great books” that I was assigned to read, and took very little pleasure from them at the time… but later, once I had time again to dive into a lot of reading, I came back to those very same books and discovered them to in fact be truly great books (when many of the popular authors I enjoyed so much when younger have grown very pale indeed upon revisitation).
As with much of education, there seems a trade-off of the short term for long term enrichment. It’s been more than worthwhile to be exposed to such wonderful literature and not -immediately- enjoy it and find it excellent later in life, rather than never to have been exposed in the first place.
I think it depends on the workload of the student too. Some students cram and take on too many classes in the mad rush to get the degree, and get completely overloaded.
I can see how some more… even-paced students would have a bit more time and energy for fiction.
Yes, but it comes back.
I agree that a life-long love of reading is instilled early on. I don’t think college destroys that love, but after reading so much for classes in college, I never read for fun when I had time. Too many words! My brain was on overload.
When I taught full time, I barely read for fun because I always had to read and re-read books. Again, I had to do different, non-wordy things to refresh my brain.
Maybe one day I’ll read a book for fun, but now I have to read all the time for work…you get the picture. I don’t think I’m alone in reading overload.
With all the text book reading I had to do, and all the English Lit novels, reading for fun was not on the radar.