Book Review: Why We Read by Shannon Reed

I’m not sure I’ve ever had a more uneven experience reading a book! Why We Read by Shannon Reed is a series of essay-style chapters about reading and books, all drawn from the author’s experience as a reader, writer, and educator. Early chapters were so frustratingly vapid and apolitical that I had to force myself to keep reading; later chapters were so interesting, I keep thinking about them days later and drawing connections to other works I’m reading, or things I’m watching, or conversations I’m having.

I was about 80% of the way through the book when I realized what the issue was. Why We Read is ordered chronologically. The earlier chapters are about Reed’s experiences as a young reader, getting her first library card, working as a library page, and generally reading everything in sight. Reed appears to have decided to be almost entirely positive and uncritical in these chapters, leaving the impression that she doesn’t care about things like how Little House on the Prairie contains some pretty racist stuff, focusing instead on her youthful realization of how difficult prairie life must have been after visiting the hole in the ground that served as one of the Ingalls’ homes.

As the book progresses into Reed’s career as an educator, especially once she’s a high school teacher and then a college professor, she gets deeper. She starts to talk about representation. About her frustration with how books are taught in school. About craft and how to read critically. Her chapter about twists, and the relationship between author, narrator, audience, and reader, has been almost constantly on my mind since I listened to it on the drive down to Tacoma this past weekend.

If the whole book was as insightful as these later chapters, I’d be out here full-throatedly endorsing it to every book lover I know. As it is, I’m more likely to suggest that if you are interested, you maybe skim some of the earlier chapters, possibly come back to them after you’ve gotten to know the adult Reed better.

The thing is, I don’t know if I would have been as frustrated with how apolitical the early chapters feel, if I hadn’t been reading That Librarian at the same time! Pro tip: do not read two books about book-loving educators at the same time. Even though I was reading one with my eyes and one with my ears, I occasionally mixed up biographical details about the two authors. But Reed’s gushing chapter about LHotP was a lot more annoying to me when I read it around the same time I read about Jones hearing others talk about issues with the series, re-reading them, and questioning whether they should remain on the shelves at the school library (the question answered itself when they were weeded out because I guess 21st century kids never check those books out).

There are things I enjoyed about this book throughout, even in the fluffier early chapters. Reed reads pretty widely. She’s in favor of reading what you love, even if what you love is Amish romance novels. She admits to not liking some classics, and loving others. She freely acknowledges that a lot of books are part of “the canon” at schools because the school still has a lot of copies of them and the teachers have lesson plans on them, so why would they bother teaching something newer and more relevant to her students? She’s in favor of glossy magazines and graphic novels, audiobooks and trendy best sellers, and Shakespeare, but only if read aloud. She admits to not understanding poetry, loving some of it but mostly only if it’s narrative. She’s very approachable and only occasionally drifts into a touch of snobbery. Often times she’s quite the opposite, rather self-depreciating about her wimpiness about horror or how she lovingly reads cookbooks but barely cooks at all.

Another thing I really liked was how right at the beginning, Reed talks about the fact that she was born hard of hearing, and had a lot of difficulty with people in her life always treating her like she wasn’t paying attention, like it was a burden to have to repeat things for her. Books were a safe place for her where she could take her time to comprehend something. I thought that was really beautiful. I wish more of the book had been like the twists essay and this introduction.

Let me tell you who this book is absolutely perfect for. You know when you’re participating in a gift exchange, and you get assigned someone who you don’t know well and all they’ve supplied is “I love books”? You don’t know what genres they read. You sure don’t know who their favorite authors are and what they’ve already read. This book is the perfect gift. Also for that person in your family who always asks you to buy them books and hates every single one of your favorite books you’ve ever gifted them. The early chapters are vague and expansive enough about the wonders of books and the libraries that it will make an inoffensive gift that shows you put some effort into thinking about their interests.

CWs and TWs: This book contains discussions of ableism, racism, and the illness and death of a parent. Also, because it’s important to me, I’d like to mention that the book contains several off-handed, non-critical mentions of the Harry Potter series, before the author explicitly says she does not agree with JKR and recognizes some of the problematic elements in the books, when discussing how her 2015 re-read while mourning a loved one is probably the last time she’ll ever read the HP books.

Source and Format: I borrowed the audiobook from Seattle Public Library.

Reading Challenge Prompts

Nook & Cranny (Card 2): Books About Books. Has any book ever been more about books than this book is about books? There’s a 15 minute “chapter” at the end just listing all of the books mentioned in the audiobook (I did not listen to it).

Brick & Mortar: Non-Fiction Published in 2024. This book was published on February 5, 2024.

Reading Challenge Progress

Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 1 of 25, no bingos.

Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 2 of 25, no bingos.

Book Riot: 1 of 25.

Physical TBR: 0 of 12.

Brick & Mortar: 4 of 25, 0 bingos*.
*I’ve already completed three of the non-reading prompts, hence the mismatch with the number of reviews!

World of Whimm: 0 out of 24 (yes, I added another card to the list, I can’t stop!).