Written by: Jenna Ulizio
Reading has always been an escape for me. In middle school, when reading bloomed into one of my most favorite things, it was fantasy that had me holed up for hours, marveling over how someone could draw me so completely from reality.
I study English and History; I read a lot of nonfiction. But many of those assignments come with the pressure of a looming grade, and sometimes I’m reading about topics that don’t interest me. For years when I sat down at night to read after a full day of classes, work, and homework, all I wanted was to slip away into someone else’s world.
Then something changed.
Now when I compile lists of books to read, nonfiction is what draws me most. Over winter break, I finally started Howard Zinn’s towering A People’s History of the United States. I lugged that thing to haircuts, to lunch breaks. Still, it finds its way into my backpack for the brief moments between classes, like — get this — my U.S. based history class. I actively look forward to my morning job so I can listen to Zoë Schlanger’s mesmerizing The Light Eaters. I look forward to every Sunday when the new edition of the New Yorker is available through my public library.
What is happening to me? There are some possible hypotheses. The world feels more and more unreal, with the rapid transmission of information through social media, the increasing digitization of daily life, and the proliferation of AI generated content. Am I reaching for something real, researched and fact-checked with a network of scholarship?
Or is it that, faced with the fact of my impending graduation in a few short months, I’ve realized that there’s so much I still want to learn? Without regular classes, I’ll need another way of immersing myself in a topic.
Maybe it’s my concern for my attention span and critical thinking skills. I want the challenge of following an argument through dense territory. I want to be confronted by topics I have little experience with and parse out meaning from that unknown.
However, there is another possibility. I read to explore new worlds. In Zinn’s book, the historical periods throughout America’s development still feel far from the world that I live in today, despite their relevance. He finds stories, often overlooked, and brings them to the surface, reweaving a narrative tapestry.
The Light Eaters introduces a large cast of scientists, and the author brings the reader along on her journey of understanding. Not only through the world of research, but into that of plants. Despite seeing plants every day, my perspective has been completely changed. Even in a darkened photography lab, I’m transported with the author to different labs and field sites around the world, trying to imagine colors, shapes, and the world of seeds and plant behavior.
In both of these texts, I am transported to a new world, through eyes not my own. The pleasure I derive from reading was never predicated solely on make-believe. I love reading for the story, the way a writer pulls every thread together. Nonfiction really isn’t so different, after all.
Featured Image Caption: Trying to get to the bottom of a new reading habit.