Re-learning to Read
Books without explicit academic purposes are rare on campus. They are difficult, if not impossible, to locate in Sterling or Bass libraries without looking them up beforehand, and the fiction section at the Yale Bookstore is generally in short supply. Some students who arrive at Yale with well-worn library cards and a lifelong love of reading find it difficult to make time to read even short books for pleasure once they get to campus. Cheap, easy reads, though not prevalent on campus, are meant to be enjoyed, not analyzed or annotated or dissected.
Kosana Weir, ES ’22, said she didn’t even expect to have time for recreational reading when she got to Yale. “I tried to read a lot over the summer,” she told me, “in case I couldn’t once I got here.” She added that her class readings are interesting, and she doesn’t feel the need to read outside of them. “Also, I barely have time,” she said, given that her busy practice schedule and other extracurriculars already take up most of her free time.
Other students have replaced reading full books for shorter, more manageable articles. Aidan Neziri, ES ’22, also hasn’t read a full book recreationally since coming to Yale, but says he reads “at least three to four full-length articles a day. Usually, I read at least one full article in The Atlantic or another magazine, and then most of the New York Times front page.” However, he says he’s so busy getting used to college that he doesn’t miss reading books, and he doesn’t mind waiting until summer or breaks to catch up on his reading.
When I enrolled in Directed Studies, I worried that I wouldn’t have time to read the cheap paperbacks and D-list library books I’ve loved since middle school. In fact, since starting the program, I haven’t finished a full book outside the DS curriculum. As much as I love my DS books, I miss the easy, distracting experience of finishing a thriller or romance novel in a few hours, without concern for literary merit or historical implications.
In high school, I carried books with me everywhere, always prepared for the wait before class or a lax substitute teacher. I burned through Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter in my last week of senior year, immersing myself in the story of a science teacher who falls into an alternative universe. One entire snow day, I was occupied by Jillian Medoff’s This Could Hurt, a weirdly emotional novel about the romances, deaths, and rivalries at a failing analytics company. The few “fun” books I’ve brought to Yale, however, are gathering dust on my bookshelves, waiting for the mythical day when I’ll be done reading the alleged best of the Western canon.
As difficult as it can be to find time to prioritize anything other than classes and social activities, easy reading can be a way to re-learn the enjoyment aspect of literature. When we read as a choice, we preserve the joy and discovery that reading holds for many in early childhood.
Yuka Saji, ES ’22, who also takes DS, has had a similar experience. “I expected to read books outside of the DS syllabus out of personal interest, but I find that the reading load keeps me much too occupied to do so,” she said. However, she doesn’t view DS and reading for pleasure as necessarily being in opposition. Because of her interest in 19th and 20th century English classics, she said that she thinks next semester’s reading will align more closely with her personal interests, “making the DS syllabus overlap with what I hoped to read in my own time.”
Personally, I rarely read classics of any kind. It took me a long time to accept that what I like to read might never be what I wish I liked to read, and that thrillers I buy for a dollar in giveaway boxes can be worth my time if I decide they are. The typical reading load at Yale is large, and it’s important to make time for the reading that brings us happiness, be it 19th century classics or murder mysteries. We already read plenty for school and other obligations, but if we want to continue to love the act of picking up a book after we leave college, reading for pleasure is a good place to start.
