Somewhere Along the Way, We Turned Reading Into a Competition

On how reading became visible, measurable, and quietly unmoored from its inner life

Somewhere along the way, we turned reading into a competition.

Not all at once. Not intentionally.
It didn’t arrive wearing the word competition.
It arrived dressed as enthusiasm. As community. As productivity. As love.

How many books this year.
How fast.
How neatly documented.
How beautifully displayed.

We began to speak about reading in numbers before we spoke about it in sentences.

At some point, the question shifted from What did this do to you?
to How many did you finish?

And quietly, almost politely, something changed.

Continue reading on Medium