Why should you read this column? Really, don't you have something better to do? Studying? Stalking your crush in Dewick while pretending to read some lame column in the Daily? Blabbering to your friends via Gchat about how that joke account retweeted a link to a Tumblr post linking to a Buzzfeed article about that Netflix show you love but procrastinated watching because you were on Facebook for four hours yesterday? Why read anything not directly related to coursework? You only get so many hours in a day.
As I grow older, I struggle to find the time and energy to read long (-ish) books solely for enjoyment, especially with the perpetually expanding number of less strenuous alternatives for stimulation, such as television or the good ol' internet. I suspect that many Tufts students can relate to this. With the emerging prominence of new kinds of entertainment, technological distractions and other ways to fritter away our precious time, I think it is vital that we (and by we, I mean me; let's be honest about the narcissism of writing a column) reexamine the role of pleasure reading in our lives and society.
Each week, I will use this column to take on a different topic relevant to modern literature and the independent reading habits of young people. Anything bookish is up for discussion, from the allure of Kindles to the best reading spots on campus. I would also be more than happy to receive topic suggestions, reactions and comments via e-mail at kevincriscione@gmail.com. I'll mix together thoughts from experts and prominent writers with my own unrefined pontification, and hopefully, somewhere in between the weak generalizations and attempts at sounding smarter than I actually am, we'll learn a few things about our collective relationship with reading. Each column will end with a book recommendation. Though it is tempting, I promise not to try to spruce up my mainstream reading interests by suggesting obscure avant-garde writers I find by spinning around and pointing my finger towards a random shelf at Tisch.
To get back to the question I opened with, here are a few reasons why, in my humble opinion (or maybe not so humble, since I decided to write a column about my opinions), you should read this column.
I am just the right amount of pretentious to write this. I could lecture you for hours on Franzen and Wallace, but mentioning Updike to me will only make me giggle at his name. I'm a liberal arts major, so I will have more than enough free time to devote to this (some liberal arts majors may be offended, as they frequently are, by this reason). Contrary to what the title of this column may suggest, I will (mostly) not rely on insipid puns. I will (try to) be more entertaining and insightful than Tumblr or any of the dozens of other brief distractions you could choose in lieu of a third-rate column in a student newspaper. I will raise big and difficult questions about literature, society and the best uses of our ever-vanishing free time, and I will answer them the only way I know how: by rambling in an unfiltered fashion about an array of loosely connected topics, digressing frequently and making dumb jokes even more frequently.
In honor of me gathering up the courage to write a column that will partly consist of me inflicting my taste on the Daily's readership, this week's recommendation is High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Read it and contemplate emotional alienation, male inadequacy hipness and its relation to identity and insecurity and the pointless shallowness of music snobbery.
Next week: Are people actually reading significantly less in our digital age? Why should we care?
Kevin Criscione is a junior majoring in English. He can be reached at Kevin.Criscione@tufts.edu.
