Why We Read Stories

 We tend to think of stories as a homogeneous collection of similar things all read for similar purposes. Certainly, stories do have things in common. However, we know that there are many different kinds such as novels vs short stories, or stories told in poems vs stories told in movies vs stories told in conversation vs stories told in print. There are graphic novels and comic books. There are fictional stories and stories that are nonfiction. There are literary works and works of popular fiction. There are genres such as mystery stories, westerns, horror, love stories and so on. We could continue to split hairs about the different kinds of stories, but I wanted to focus here on the variety of reasons why people read stories regardless of the nature of the story. Granted certain reasons may apply more to specific categories. But, it would be unrealistic to expect that all stories within any given category are all read for the same reasons.

When I started this post, the topic seemed to be fairly straightforward. I would make a list over a few days, jot down some notes expanding on the list items, and then write it up. Unfortunately, the longer I pondered the topic of Why People Read Stories the more complicated it became. It is like asking – Why do people interact with each other. The longer you think about it, the more difficult it is to answer. There are a lot of reasons why people interact with each other, and any given interaction may have multiple reasons. Similarly, there are lots of reasons why people read stories and any given person, on any given day, reading any particular story, might have multiple reasons as well. If you were to select one of your favorite stories and ask why you read it, you would almost certainly come up with many reasons. Long after you had intentionally done this exercise, you would certainly think of more.

Perhaps, your favorite book is The Grapes of Wrath [feel free to replace this with your own choice]. Let’s say that you made a list of reasons [again, insert your own]. But, then one day while riding the subway downtown, another reason pops into your head. You cannot very well turn to the stranger next to you and claim, excitedly, “I just thought of another reason why I read The Grapes of Wrath.” The only exception I can think of, for this, is if you were in a Woody Allen movie, in which case the stranger next to you might challenge your reason, offer other reasons, or reject your choice of favorite book.

I hit another snag as I tried to organize the reasons why people read into a list that I could sort from most common to less common. I originally thought that should be straightforward, as well. But, alas, I was, once again, naive. I had to toss out the idea of a list because a list implies (to some extent) mutually exclusive items organized according to some criteria. That is, reason number one should have more of something than, say, reason number ten. I suppose I could have avoided that by using bullet points. But that wouldn’t solve the implied mutual exclusivity.  I thought, perhaps, that I could provide a paragraph for each reason, but eventually give up any pretense of order. I decided to just jot down my thoughts, and then try to salvage some order in editing. Here is what I came up with.

It seems obvious to me that many people (possibly most) read for enjoyment and entertainment. Does everyone? Probably not. Somebody reading a classic for a high school or college class may not be reading it for pleasure. Mark Twain remarked “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read, and nobody wants to read.” Why would someone read a book that nobody wants to read? Perhaps, for a grade. Perhaps to impress an attractive classmate. Perhaps to impress people at book club meetup. To be fair, I should point out that, I have read many classics that proved to be extraordinary reading experiences, although I am not above the ‘perhaps’ reasons.

People also read to acquire information or knowledge. This could be anything from a How-To book to a nonfiction Guide to Disney World, to a work of historical fiction. One cannot rule out enjoyment in any of these examples, although enjoyment would be a secondary reason.

Information or knowledge is not the only thing one might acquire from reading. Readers often look to fiction stories to acquire vicarious experiences. What does it feel like to be accused of a murder that you didn’t commit? How does it feel to take a big gamble in business and loose everything? How does it feel when the only person you’ve ever loved decides that he or she doesn’t love you anymore? If you are reading fiction, the vicarious experiences will be one of your main reasons. However, this does not imply that this will be something you enjoy. Sometimes we grow as a person rather than enjoy our voyeurism. Sometimes the reading experience will force us to see something we have never really thought about. We may have to rethink long held views or values.

Sometimes we read for emotional connection. We are social animals and connections with other people are important to our well being and psychological stability. But connecting with other people may not be all that easy. Maybe you are shy. Maybe the place you work, or your neighborhood is not all that friendly. Maybe you don’t have much in common with the people around you. If reaching out to other people for connection is difficult, for some reason, you can always connect with fictional characters through reading. But is this a good idea? I think you can argue it either way. On one hand, real people are, well, real. And connecting with them is more natural. However, real people are usually unpredictably flawed, and often uninteresting. Fictional characters are often far more interesting and usually flawed in more important and predictable ways. In addition, interactions with real people can lead to a wide variety of problems. With fictional characters you can always toss the book and forget them.

Expanding on the idea of vicarious experiences, some people wish to experiment with vicarious experience. In the first type, mentioned earlier, people prepare for situations that might, conceivably, happen to them and for which they would like some degree of mental and or emotional preparation. In the second type, people want to experience roles that they will never participate in. For example, western stories, spy stories, pirate stories, stories where the protagonist battles aliens and so forth provides the reader with opportunities to experience impossible roles.  

Taking the idea of vicarious experiences, a little further, people often read to experience new things. Those new things might be different kinds of people or different cultures. Sometime the experiences include different times past or future or different settings that we do not normally encounter. 

While this next reason applies more to younger people, it is not exclusive to them. People read stories to acquire values. Young children acquire values from fairy tales and folk tales. More mature people might acquire values from epic heroic stories such as the works of Homer.  

Of course, people also read to grow intellectually. While this overlaps with many of the other reasons, and is often secondary or a side effect, it bears being brought to the foreground. It is like saying that people exercise or go to the gym to look better, maybe even to feel better. But the ultimate goal is to improve their health. Similarly, you may read for any of the reasons stated so far. But, ultimately, reading improves your mind.

This is far from an exhaustive list. The writer James Scott Bell suggests that people read because worrying about a character keeps people from worrying about their selves. The literary scholar Lisa Zunshine asserts that people read to improve their mind reading skills and theory of mind. This is a bit arcane but boils down to the fact that we like being able to determine what others are thinking. We develop this skill by interacting with others but can sharpen it through reading.

If we see reading as an extension of social interaction, then we can also see that people often read for the same reason that people gossip. Gossip allows us to know what other members of our community are doing. Reading expands that community and provides gossip about people beyond our current social sphere.

Finally, it bears mentioning that people often read for the same reason that they buy fashionable clothes. They want to show that they are a part of group and are keeping up with it.

And, in light of the new book I am working on, people read stories to explore possible worlds. But, I will end this post now and pick up the idea of reading to explore possible worlds in a future post.