Read a fucking book

I have seen so many posts about “bringing back reading comprehension.” I have a Master degree in Library and Information Science. I am a librarian. I’m sorry to say that reading comprehension has always been low. Black people were learning to read in secret so they could read the laws folks created to continue their enslavement. Reading comprehension in America has been politically contentious forever. It’s surprising to me that folks don’t realize that.

I grew up reading. My grandmother has literally thousands of books in her home. My mom and dad have both written multiple books. Again, I am also a working librarian. All of that being said, I am rarely around folks who can’t read. But even I know that folks aren’t reading. I know this because I read books. When I said on an Instagram story how frustrating it is to know that folks don’t read BOOKS, a new friend DM’d me to say “don’t drag me but I don’t read books.” What the helly? What the hellyante? What the HELLY BERRY! Please know that if you don’t read books, real readers can tell.

The Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) has research on the adult literacy and “numeracy,” which is a new word to me. I’m assuming numeracy just means you can do some math. According to this report from the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of American adults at the lowest level of literacy has increased while the number of folks with a higher literacy level has decreased. This is also true for numeracy. I’m still unclear how they differentiate between levels but I think it’s safe to assume that people who read books are in the higher levels.

I have been sharing about the books I read with my loved ones as a way to connect, dissect culture and gather for my whole life. I have seen a renewed desire to get people reading. Even writing that I started feeling anger in my chest and throat. Now we are worried? Is it because people with low literacy are loving our 2025 authoritarian regime? Is it because we are seeing too many dumbass thoughts in the comments and we want at least one (1) critical, cohesive statement?

I started to get pissed about this because I saw posts (it’s always a mf post) talking about ways parents can get their kids to love reading. I am never going to be a parent thanks to birth control and my generally homosexual lifestyle. It’s not my place to get into parental business. However when the parents are leading the charge with book banning… I think it’s time to insert myself!

My public library system gave me autonomy to select books I was interested in. I learned about parental concern firsthand when I checked out a Gossip Girl book. I secretly read the smutty goodness at night. I couldn’t have been older than 13 but likely I was 11 or 10. Gossip Girl the books are considerably more smutty than the 2005 CW adaptation. My mom found the book and furiously yelled at me. I don’t remember her saying I couldn’t read the books but I could have surmised as much from the Evangelical Christian nature of the homeschool group we were in. My mom did not go on a crusade to remove Gossip Girl from the entire Baltimore County Public Library system. She didn’t even stop me from reading it, since she found it after I read it and realized that I needed to live in New York with rich, hot people.

Instead, my mom taught me that books can teach you things that people may be afraid to share with you. What my mom didn’t know is that I had been sneaking books for awhile. Learning about things my Christian educators were wary to share or were straight-up censoring. I first did this years before when another mom brought mine a book about bodies/sex for children. She told me to read just one section but not the section on “masturbation/heavy petting.” Cannot remember the assigned reading but I surely read about heavy petting and masturbation! Then I started to worry why my mom didn’t want to talk to me about it. Was it maybe because she didn’t want me to know things?

I’m sure that’s not it. At 30 years old, I now think it’s because she just wasn’t ready to talk about the hard stuff! She was barely 30 herself when I was reading the section on masturbation. I learned that some people will hide information from you because they aren’t ready to handle the complexities of what the information means. I love my mom and I have grown with a great distrust for information I did not learn firsthand. I wonder what people are hiding from me when they share a tik tok “summarizing” an article. I know that there’s a reason a book is over 120 pages and some Tik Toks aren’t even over 120 seconds. I know this because I am a reader.

Anyway, I think I’m going to start sharing the pet podcast project I’ve been working on where I write a book review and then share my unhinged voice notes on said book. I also think I’m going to just start writing more on here because why not.