Why do we keep encourage people to just “read more”?

I honestly don’t get whose idea it was to just say "read more" as if that solves anything. I know lots of people mean well when they say it, and maybe they’re thinking of good books or reading critically, but just saying “we need to increase male readership” means little. Even saying “men need to read more books,” for example, isn’t all that helpful.

There are a lot of awful books out there, books full of misinformation, shallow ideas, lowest common denominator stuff…. So telling someone to read more, no matter what, is kind of like telling someone thin, “you need to eat more.” Sure, if someone’s anorexic and on their deathbed, sure, that advice makes sense. Same with reading. If someone’s literally never gone to school or can’t read at all, then yes, learning to read anything is better than nothing. But most people I know here in North America aren’t in that situation. This isn’t Chad or Afghanistan or whatever. So let’s not pretend that any and all reading is automatically good.

I know people who read Twitter obsessively and very confidently spread garbage information. I also know people who are weirdly proud of reading stacks of trashy romance novels like it’s some intellectual feat.

And before anyone accuses me of being a snob or trying to ban pleasure reading, no, I’m not. I’ve read bad books, terrible books too, and I will in the future, just because I enjoyed them. I don’t care what anybody says. So that's not what I'm saying.

But to me, the real point of reading, the part that is most important, is to help us grow. Reading should challenge us. So, first off, learn how to read critically. What does that mean? It means you don’t just accept what you’re reading at face value. You question it. You think about who wrote it, why they wrote it, what they’re assuming, etc. You look at the evidence, the arguments, the bias, all that. Yes, even applies to read a so-called classic. You’re allowed to question what you read, be it The Bible or Pride and Prejudice. And you should.

Second, if reading is really going to expand your worldview, then you have to step outside of what’s familiar. That means reading books that might make you uncomfortable. No, not because they’re too violent or disturbing, but because they come from perspectives you’ve never considered. Books that are written in a voice you're not used to, by people you might not have ever had a conversation with in real life, about topics you know next to nothing about, in language that's unfamiliar….

If you’re a man, read something written by a woman about being a woman. If you grew up in the South, read about life in the North. If you’re a college student in Spain, try reading about what it’s like to be a student in North Korea or Iraq. Read about other people's lived, about what shaped them, what they struggle with, what they value, what they want.

There are endless ways our personal experiences diverge from others'. Geography, history, politics, culture, religion, economics, all of it plays a role. And there are real psychological forces at play (seriously, just Google “us vs them psychology”) that keep us locked into our own social identities, make us misjudge or mistrust people who aren’t like us. That kind of thinking is behind a lot of the harm we do to each other, a lot of pain we cause, behind rejecting and excluding others, waging wars, whether we realize it or not.

Books won't do magic. And I know personally, I will likely continue to cause people harm because of psychological forces that keep me tied to my identity and prevent me from seeing things from their perspectives. So I'm not here pretending to be enlightened or anything. I'm the same but trying. And I'm hoping good books help move you a little bit out of your comfort zone; and that little bit, if you multiply it by a million, can change the world.

So no, reading more isn’t the goal. Reading better is. Reading deeper, wider, more critically.

Okay, rant over, let the downvoting and misunderstanding begin.