Cool Reading

When I was flying home from Orlando I stood up at one point to walk and stretch my legs.  I had a long walk, as I was in the front of the plane and the bathroom was at the back. So I got a good long glance at people as I passed by.  This was a Boeing 737, sitting three people on each side of the plane, so it was fairly large.

As I passed by each row I saw lots of children with earphones on intently listening to a movie, swiping screens and also madly moving their thumbs back and forth as they engaged in playing some game on a device.  None of the children were reading and this plane was packed with children as it was returning from Orlando, land of theme parks.  I noted the same thing with the adults.  They sat there in a numbed out state, earphones on, staring at screens.  Then I saw her. Row 26. Her light was on above her head. In her hands, a Kindle.  As I passed by her a second time, headed back to my seat in row 9, it struck me.  I didn’t see one book. 

This was a plane full of vacationers.  We were in the middle of July – prime vacation weeks. Usually on planes,  I see business travelers, reading, typing manically on their keyboards, or often sleeping. But this crew of passengers was different. They were relaxing. Perhaps a little beat up from the sun and fun in Orlando. This plane had somewhere around 150 passengers in coach, and only one was reading the two times I got up and walked around.

Now, I am not bemoaning the fact that I didn’t see a book in paper anywhere on the plane. (Well, maybe I am a little bit.) Not in those beautiful, little hands of the youngest children, or even in the hands of the grandma who might have been engaged in a pleasure read.  Nope, none, nada. 

I was startled.  I am an educator.  I teach how to teach reading.  I still teach how to read research for my graduate students that have to learn to read volumes of information in a short amount of time.  At that moment, I realized that I was surround by 149 people who had absolutely nothing to do except sit at 30,000 feet in the air for at least another 3 hours and only one person was reading, and none of them were reading books printed on paper.

I saw this moment as raw data.  People returning from vacation will choose to glue themselves to a movie (may I point out that someone had to read the script to act in or produce that movie). Parents returning from vacation put all of their children, the youngest looked about two years old, on a device with moving pictures. These adults did not choose reading as a past time for themselves, or for their children.
This is the new reality.

I am hoping for an upsurge of getting back to reading in the future. Like cooking for example, or fancy paper. 

For years now, I can go to Costco and buy any food, prepared for instant warming and eating, that my heart desires. However, cookbooks, cooking shows and cooking magazines have come back big. Certainly, its not that everyday-need-to-get-food-on-the-table cooking my mom did every single day for three meals. It’s bigger than that. It’s cooking for emotion and enrichment. It’s cooking for entertainment.

Paper is another great example. Me, being the convert I am to Evite and Paperless Post, I have noticed recently that I can order printed copies of the beautiful invitations I whisk off to my dear friends and family in email.  I can also order the most gorgeous paper products for creating almost anything my heart desires for thank you notes, planners, calendars and photo albums. Trust me, this is kinda of an emotional experience too. I feel some deep thrill when smelling the paper in a Shutterfly photo album. 

All this when I thought my iPhone was the end all, be all of electronic communication.

So, I am prepping for the resurgence of reading when it becomes cool again.  Mark my words, it will happen.  I never thought cooking or paper would become a cool, hip thing.  Who knew?

I really am personally not helping this issue that I am labeling the abandomnent of the pleasure read. I admit, I have only read professional books, or self-help, inner journey, yoga books this summer. I am committing to make reading cool again.

Join me – I am going to challenge myself to read a novel before summer is over. I have three weeks.  I will post next week which book I choose. 

Let me know what you read this summer, or if you will join me in my Make Reading Cool Again campaign,  click ‘Add a comment’ at the bottom of this post on the blog and tell me what you plan to read in the next three weeks!  Or comment on Facebook, or Tweet it out.

I am going to hold you to it.