Reading the Room: The Role of Readers in Our Literary Landscape

by Amy Wilson Sheldon

May 14, 2020

Universal Hobbies 101: Spending time with friends and family, a good cup of “designer coffee” and/or pint of craft brew, and…reading. Doesn’t it seem that in our efforts to differentiate ourselves, we often end up inadvertently acknowledging that — in many ways — we’re pretty much the same? You like to read? Hey, I like to read! Now what?

With the proliferation of celebrity book clubs (love ‘em or hate ‘em), book-oriented social media accounts, and Target’s embrace of the written word, it sort of feels like “reading” is trending. In fact, almost two years ago, the singer SZA tweeted, “Low key feel like books r making a comeback…” It was retweeted 14,000 times, probably because despite the fact that Gutenberg invented the printing press nearly 600 years ago, 21st century “reading” feels fresh, trendy, and inclusive.

Almost everyone I know loves to read. Everyone! But most people I know (outside of certain circles where I know people because of our shared love of books) do not go to any sort of “literary event.” No book festival, no author reading, no conversation about themes found in, say, World War II or YA novels. I was already keenly aware of that fact, but a couple of weeks ago, a Twitter thread about the Galway-based Cúirt International Festival of Literature, which was one of the first festivals to move its programming online in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, caught my eye.

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