There’s such thing as a love of reading. But there are times when that love goes too far. When a love for reading turns into an addiction. Now, this is perhaps one of the best kinds of addiction that I could think of. But too much reading could be a bad thing if it interferes with your life.
The Germans actually came up with a word to refer to a reading addiction—lesesucht. They’ve even got two closely related words: lesewut, which means reading rage; and leserei, meaning reading mania. If you get to the point where you’re in a rage or mania over reading, you might be addicted.
In a column for the Sydney Morning Herald, journalist Amanda Hooton describes going cold turkey to cure her reading addiction. She describes reading as “the greatest pleasure of my life and the biggest problem in my mental world.” The draw to reading for her is that “it wipes out reality.”
But the problem is that it doesn’t. Reading allows us to escape the grind of daily reality, but only temporarily. In fact, these things actually continue to happen while we’re immersed in a book. And they come roaring back in to overwhelm us once we re-enter reality.
Hooton says that “reading had swallowed my life… I was no longer even enjoying it.” Reading is meant to enhance our lives. But when it starts to replace it, that’s no longer possible. When you’ve gotten to the point when reading is overtaking your life, you’re addicted.
Here are just a few symptoms of reading addiction.