Despite how great reading is, it’s not all sunshine and roses. There are certain things that prevent people from reading and benefiting from all of its benefits. Here are a few of the greatest threats to reading in our current culture.
- Illiteracy: Illiteracy is generally recognized as the inability to read or write. While it’s culturally more complex, it’s hard to operate today without those skills. It’s estimated that more than 775 million people around the world were illiterate as of 2018. Thankfully, that still leaves us with a literacy rate of over 84%.
- Dyslexia: Dyslexia is a common learning disorder, characterized by difficulty reading. It impacts cognitive development, especially in children, but it’s thankfully very treatable when diagnosed. More than 3 million cases of dyslexia are reported in the US every year.
- Blindness: For most of history, reading was done through sight. That was until Louis Braille, who was only 15 at the time, invented a sightless reading system in 1824. Now, blindness is no longer a huge barrier preventing people from reading.
- **Book burning:** The practice of burning books is typically done in an effort to protest or censor certain ideas. Book burning is more of a symbolic ritual, and has been used especially by hate groups, including the Nazis. This practice also plays significantly in Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451.****
- Bibliophobia: yes, there really is such thing as the fear of books. It’s not very common, but it is pretty debilitating on the journey to becoming a reader.
- Apathy: Perhaps the greatest threat to humanity’s tradition of reading is apathy, the lack of interest or concern. Most of the previously mentioned challenges can be overcome. But a person who does not care to read will likely not do so. And there’s nothing sadder than a person content with their own ignorance.
Dyslexia