Spoiled-Rotten Readers

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By Mark W.F. Condon, Unite for Literacy vice president

Many of us adults are spoiled-rotten readers because we read books that suit our selfish needs. “Selfish needs” may sound sort of bad, but as each of us grows free from the hinderances that come from others’ expectations we grow into the persons that only we can be.

Many adults travel from one enthusiastic opening of a book to another, unbothered by the memory of teachers and others who tallied reading success by books completed. Instead, we glory in the fabulous images, vibrate with the rich language, and joyfully engage in the vicarious experiences authors have provided. We also leave a book unfinished if it doesn’t inspire us the way we had hoped it would.

There are other adults who feel compelled to finish every book they start, seemingly shamed as children into completing a book that their hearts abandoned long ago, which I think is very sad. Indeed, most of us were trained during our school years to read every book we were given from cover to cover, because doing so would earn us recognition and affirmation from teachers and parents, accumulating the equivalent of “gold star stickers” along the way.

To some, this might seem like character building—a good way to encourage “stick-to-it-ness.” However, any kind of “sticking to a task” or “working towards a goal” should serve to drive us forward because we personally desire the outcome, not because somebody else said to finish something, like a book.

Books that don’t interest us are like cold tombstones, monuments to what could have helped a reader form a personal relationship with a book full of fabulous characters and events or an author who consistently captures our attention. But it didn’t if the reader’s experience wasn’t personally rewarding.  

When adults require children to finish books even if they’re not interested in them, we could be leading reluctant readers onto a slippery path that could end in a kind of reading death. That’s when youngsters, and even oldsters, dismiss libraries and bookstores, and ultimately abandon books, signaling that they have come to believe that the entire literacy enterprise is a boring waste of free time.

None of us happily avid readers want that outcome. Instead, we recommend that adults simply “spoil” children by allowing them to read self-selected choices from among the thousands of wonderful books out there, those they determine to be perfectly suited for their own enjoyment.

Let’s commit to affirming our children’s individuality and uniqueness. Let’s support those critical areas of development by offering kids the freedom simply to return any book to the library that didn’t meet their expectations at any time, even right before they finish it. That way they can choose a different, more promising read for themselves at will. We might even publicly celebrate them for sharing information and ideas gleaned from their self-selected books to inform and engage in conversations with family and friends.

This type of spoiling might very well lead to constant growth, inspiring kids as joyful life-long readers. In other words, lifelong learning, along their unique paths in seeking their personal “hearts content”!

After all, life’s too short to read books that don’t make our hearts sing and minds dance.