mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
In Jonathan Franzen’s essay, “Why Bother?” (Harper’s, ‘96), he talks about linguist and MacArthur Fellow Shirley Brice Heath and her research on the reading habits of Americans. Her conclusions led her to believe there are are two kinds of readers:
- “modeled-habit” readers: parents instilled this as exercise and necessary badge of class/entitlement; parents read, too.
- “social-isolate” readers: surprise–socially isolated (but this, as opposed to antisocial); sublimated this pain into investing in imaginary worlds; felt connected to the authors
I have to say this rings true. Plus, I’m a sucker for dividing large groups into two categories! (I almost collect them: “You’re a giver or you’re a taker”; “You’re a cook or you’re a baker”; “You’re an Elvis person or you’re a Beatles person). I’d have to say I’m a social-isolate reader. My parents were pretty well occupied with the exigencies of raising strange and demanding children to carve out time alone for reading (my mother’s favorite book was Five Minutes’ Peace). Interested to hear what kind you are, or if you think the two camps should be recalibrated…
Comments (29)
Comment
hm.. i’m not sure about this.. I would categorise myself as a “modeled-habit” reader, but i don’t think that is exactly accurate. my mother instilled in me that reading was important, but my love of literature and learning is independent of class or entitlement issues. i just enjoy reading and learning about topics that pique my interest.
posted by Rebekka on 8-21-2007 at 12:42 pm
I would say that I’m both. My mother and grandmother definitely instilled a love of reading in me, but i still used it as a way of escaping from everything when I was little.
As an aside, the dualities thing would make an interesting post too!
posted by leiarenee on 8-21-2007 at 1:02 pm
Definitely a social-isolate. I spent a significant portion of my youth grounded for one reason or another, so reading became a convenient and enjoyable escape from the boredom.
posted by Bill T. on 8-21-2007 at 1:13 pm
I’m a combination “modeled habit-social isolate” reader. But then, I am also an “Elvis person” and a “Beatles person”!
posted by David A. Norris on 8-21-2007 at 1:56 pm
I qualify as social-isolate. My parents never read to me growing up but I read on my own since I was in kidnergarten for the very reason described above, as a mode of escape and connection with another, perhaps more accepting world.
posted by ac on 8-21-2007 at 2:04 pm
social-isolate for sure. I would read while walking to and from school, which meant I occasionally walked into a fence, tree, or blackberry bush.
posted by Jenny on 8-21-2007 at 2:06 pm
I’d concur with Rebekka, above. My love of reading comes from my parents, but it wasn’t about class/entitlement. My parents loved books, and they encouraged me to love books. It wasn’t a chore or an exercise, but something we did together and enjoyed.
I’m a baker and an Elvis person. Definitely.
posted by Kristen on 8-21-2007 at 2:20 pm
Well, I come from a long proud line of social-isolates, so I got into reading because many generations before me got into the habit. The guys in my family are all antisocial, and reading is a father to son tradition. I suppose that would argue for the phenomenon being on a spectrum rather than dichotomy. Or something.
posted by Jack on 8-21-2007 at 2:22 pm
Maybe there’s a third group? I learned it as a coping mechanism from my parents, and my daughter has taken it on as well. It was never (well, only a tiny bit) about work: it wasn’t an “exercise” at all. It was about growing up in the suburbs in the south, which wasn’t very entertaining. Traveling through space via Madeline L’Engle’s *A Wrinkle In Time*, though … that was much cooler than life in the ‘burbs.
posted by MFD on 8-21-2007 at 2:29 pm
I too am a social-isolate reader who comes from a family of readers. I am unsure that either category covers the readers in my family all that well, but it occurs to me that people who read and comment on blogs (especially Mental Floss?) are more like to be social-isolates. Maybe trying to grow?
posted by Vanessa on 8-21-2007 at 2:38 pm
Are these the reading time for pleasure reading? Most of the reading I do is compulsory for work or education and it would not fit into either category above; I do it because I must.
A break down of my reading:
80% Technical manuals - compulsory
15% Information/non-fiction, like m_f - Fits neither category
5% fits the social-isolate model
posted by n2y2 on 8-21-2007 at 2:41 pm
Tom Robbins says there are two types of people, people who think there are two types of people, and people who think that’s shit. (I paraphrased.)
posted by tara on 8-21-2007 at 2:41 pm
Didn’t you mean Beatles or Rolling Stones? Do those correlate to a type of reader? Me thinks so: Beatles are social-isolates (sitting in there rooms, alone, “Love Me Do,” fantasizing about meeting John and Paul), while Rolling Stones are modeled-habit (partying like a rock star, “Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” just like their friends). Elvis would be an amalgamation of the two: reading to forget about how he gots no money, then reading to help out his momma, who instilled in him the wealth and status that reading would bring. Too much? Yeah, I thought so.
posted by Jason on 8-21-2007 at 2:43 pm
I would say that I’m both. My family always read and the library was a favorite place for us, but I definitely used it to escape at times (and still do). The lives of characters in books is so much more exciting than mine!
posted by Leah on 8-21-2007 at 2:58 pm
I am definitely a social-isolate reader. My mom was a beautician and my father was a barber, and I hardly ever saw either of them reading anything while I was growing up, except occasionally a newspaper or magazine. I would read anything I could get my hands on, including the cereal boxes on the breakfast table. As a matter of fact, my father discovered that I could read when he was reading the want ads - always the classic car section - and I was looking over his shoulder and asked him, “Are you going to buy that car, Dad?” “Which car?” he asked me. And I pointed to an ad, promptly reading it to him. I was about three and a half years old at the time. Since I was the oldest child, my parents just thought that it was the most natural thing in the world, and were not in the least bit surprised when my kindergarten teacher called them. “Did you know that Angela can read?” she asked, to which my mother replied, “Of course, she’s been reading for a couple of years now…” Have you ever seen that movie called “Matilda,” based on the book by Roald Dahl? In the beginning, when she discovers books and the lending library? That’s just like me!
posted by Angel on 8-21-2007 at 3:05 pm
Er, very much both. I was encouraged to read and ran with it. Sometimes literally. I have more success when I walk with it, hehe, tend to hit less things.
[Actually, I’ve gotten quite good at reading while walking. I don’t hit things at all anymore.]
posted by Aemi on 8-21-2007 at 3:11 pm
Although I am more of a social isolate type, I am raising one daughter who is most definately the “social isolate” type, and then there are my two other children, both the “molded habit” if readers at all.
posted by TracyB on 8-21-2007 at 3:16 pm
I think my 2 siblings and I were raised to love reading–my mom reads a lot and took us to the library like clockwork every two weeks–but I’m also a social isolate reader. I’m the only one of the 3 of us kids who still reads regularly. I suppose that’s because I never cared to have many friends, so I read instead. I can always tell when I’m stressed, because I start reading voraciously. Definitely socially isolated. :-)
posted by Meagan on 8-21-2007 at 3:58 pm
My parents read to me and gave/give me gift cards to the bookstore for my birthday instead of trying to figure out what I kind I want. But, there’s been plenty of reality in my life, so escaping to a differnt world is very comforting. So, I guess I’m both. Most of my friends who used to read, have given it up by now (That makes books sound like drugs!) and I could’ve given it up by now if my parents hadn’t had me love books and I still need the alternate reality.
posted by Emily on 8-21-2007 at 6:15 pm
I am definitely a social-isolate. This was fostered almost as soon as I learned to read, which was during the terrifying summers of polio epidemic, when parents kept their children inside during hot summer days, fearing that playing outside was dangerous. A lonely only child, the Nancy Drew and Judy Bolton books were my companions. I have branched out, of course, but then and now, books have shown me the world as I perceive it.
posted by Barbara on 8-21-2007 at 7:59 pm
Social-isolate for sure. My mom employed the local bookstore as a surrogate babysitter for my sister and I during shopping trips (that we declined to go on). It also served to mitigate her (irrational, in our eyes) horror of our exponential book accumulation.
To be frank, while our reading habits may have been initially encouraged by our parents as “good exercise”, our proclivities swiftly earned words of caution and incredulity (eg. “how can you read in bed/the car/while walking/eating?”).
posted by popsciolist on 8-21-2007 at 9:30 pm
I’m a combination of modeled-habit and social-isolate. I got friends in high school, though, and didn’t read as much (though I still read a bit.)
I’d also say that I’m a combination of giver and taker, as I like both.
But I’m definately a Beatles person.
posted by Anne on 8-21-2007 at 10:15 pm
When I was growing up, I upset my mother because I didn’t read enough. There were six kids in my family, and we were all readers. Except me. I read, but not with the zeal my siblings showed.
It turns out I had some sort of reading disorder, apparently.
In any case, I became a journalist/writer.
Funny how things turn out.
posted by Patti McCracken on 8-22-2007 at 1:39 am
I would say I am both. My mom and daddy wer big readers. My house growing up was just littered with all sorts of books. I was also read to on a regular bases.
I used books to ecscape as well. In pre-schoolmy fav thing to do was to go to the reading loft that looked a lot like a tree house. It was the only place I could get away from the other kids. Today I still read quite a bit, however it’s mostly Mother Goose and Dr. Seuss that I read to my nices.
posted by Melissa B on 8-22-2007 at 7:44 am
I’m both … contributed to in part by the fact that my mother is a huge reader, my father not a reader at all
additionally, i’m not surprised that I’m a combo - I pretty much live my life in the gray area! Geeeee wiz
posted by sd on 8-22-2007 at 8:21 am
There are two kinds of people in the world, those who divide everyone into two categories, and those who don’t.
my second favourite:
“there are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary…”
posted by Matt Blind on 8-22-2007 at 9:03 am
I am also both. My mom pushed me to read at an early age so she wouldn’t have to entertain/interact with me so much, and since I was never really around other kids until I started school, reading was 90% of my entertainment, and it stayed that way. I also read when walking. :-) Glad I’m not the only one.
posted by Cinnamon on 8-22-2007 at 3:56 pm
I have been a biblio-holic since early childhood! Parents never read to me and I was not a social isolate as a child (am more of one lately). I think I was more of an escape-artist (escape the not so pretty world for the wonderful worldof imagination). I still dive into a book when I am stressed out!
posted by JaneM on 8-22-2007 at 5:14 pm
I am definitely the social-isolate. Like Angel above, my parents never had the time to read for pleasure. And in a way, I was the total freak of my family. I learned to read at 3, I have one older brother and one younger. I quickly outpaced my older brother at all things school-wise. But, was socially awkward and read to escape. My parents actually punished me when I was younger by taking away my books and making me go outside. I kid you not. I was Matilda at the lending library too. As soon as I got out of college and got a real job, I started buying books like mad because my parents hardly let me buy any books. Then I bought a house and had to pack up all those books and move them. Needless to say, I haven’t bought many books since!
And yesterday was my favorite day (6 each year) because my new mental_floss came in the mail and I can just lose myself in the mag. I just LOVE this mag! I always am in a great mood for about a week after m_f comes in the mail, no matter what else is going on.
posted by CentreChick on 8-22-2007 at 10:37 pm