Chronically reading
Why I read the news everyday
I can’t remember a time I was not reading, a time pre-history (this is for the pun). Reading has always been part of my day. As a child I was reading before bed, often staying up way past my bedtime and hiding under the blanket to read. A teenager, I started to read the news in the morning and a book at night. Now, I pretty much spend my whole day reading: a quick, unreliable, calculation informs me that I currently average 200 or so news articles and 1.5 book per week. I cannot tell if that is excessive, is it?
Reading has always been the best part of any routine, and sometimes of the day. I love waking up way earlier than necessary and being alone in between the night and day with my book, I love being a gigantic cliché reading and commenting on the news with my breakfast, I take a book with me pretty much everywhere and look like a pretentious bitch reading it in bars *picture a brick and red wine, probably a faux fur coat too.
But I was probably lucky. My parents told us bedtime stories when my sibling and I were little. Our primary school teacher sometimes gave us reading in the sun (on a warm summer day) or by the fire (any other Belgian day) as homework. We could pick books from the bibliobus, a mobile library that would stop in our village. I wasn’t surrounded by books, there was no big bookshelf in our house, my parents were not huge readers, but they made sure we would be and I am so grateful for that.
In 2024, 1 in 3 British children aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading, only 1 in 5 reads daily. ‘[The] lowest level since we first asked the question in 2005’, said the National Literacy Trust.
I find a profound joy when reading a perfect article; one that makes you think, pause, reread, save, and sends you down a rabbit hole on a certain topic. It is just as exhilarating as reading way past your bedtime because a chapter is amazing and so is the next one and the one that ends on a cliffhanger…
I like to get news from different sources and my reading habit has its own routine. During the week I start and end the day with non-fiction, I read the Guardian1 daily, in a quasi-religious manner. Currently, I am a news omnivore and open any articles that spark my interest, at times I’m more picky. I sprinkle variety, with a different publication each day: The Intercept on Monday, Ref 29 on Tuesday, Dissent on Wednesday, Vox or Byline on Thursday, and anything goes Friday. The weekend is for fiction, leftover news, recommendations and Le Monde Diplomatique. There’s something about long reads in parallel with imagined stories.
I don’t know why anyone would care about my reading habits but I am somewhat of a pretentious intellectual, and after all, I didn’t study journalism for nothing: I am deeply passionate.
According to the Reading Agency, half of British adults don’t read frequently. 16% score at the lowest level of proficiency in literacy. Data show a continuous decrease in the amount of people who read regularly.
I love the news, I really do. I love learning about things I would have never encountered otherwise. I love reading about other people’s lives, it is enriching and trains empathy. I love having little ‘I knew it’ moments when I predicted a situation. I love beautiful writing and ugly writing but that is touching. I love picking apart an article like an editor, thinking about what I would have done differently. I love being critical of what I read, understanding the issues and how they could evolve. I love taking the news apart and being able to explain it, to put things together, to have an idea of the historical, cultural, political context… and that requires more reading.
So I also read books and academic papers, which often leads to more books and papers and news articles. It never ends.
I don’t want it to end.
A study found that in the European Union, women and younger people read more than the rest of the population.
I love getting the substack notification when a writer publishes a new article, I love it even more when the title speaks to me, or even the cover picture (I’m like that, I do judge a book, or in this case an article, by its cover).
I hate when I get into a reading slump, I hate when there are no good articles to read, I hate when my eyes start hurting and I need to take a break. It’s very much a can’t stop won’t stop situation.
I think I’m addicted to the news. Not in a doomed way, but in a very romantic way. I’ve always been curious and reading is an open window to the world, sometimes a secret keyhole, a light in the dark. Knowledge is powerful and being well-informed is critical to understanding our world, not only that but reading has health and mental health benefits. It can make you feel less lonely, reduce stress, improve memory…
I guess that’s what I wanted to say.
When I was a baby, my mum told me, my parents would keep me busy by giving me a huge box of old newspapers. For hours on end, I would pick newspapers, one by one, from the box and put them in a little pile, then back in the box.
/on the list/
reading in public, especially in transports
two slices of sourdough bread with butter and cheese, a blood orange and a small bowl of greek yoghurt, granola, half a banana and golden syrup
longer days
Women, Race & Class, Angela Y. Davis
imagination
Quick before you leave! I want your opinion, my dear dear reader, I have been toying with the frequency and schedule of publishing this newsletter since ever and it is time I demand your opinion. I would be so grateful if you could reply in the two polls below, so many thanks in advance <3
which I apparently mispronounced but in a cute way, or I have been told by my British partner.
I was never much of a reader, nor a writer, until about 10.5 years ago when I had an accident that almost killed me. That accident inspired an idea and I began to dream. While dreaming, I was forced to read, research, investigate, analyze, scrutinize, criticize, hypothesize, and write, to help others understand my dream, to try and ignite my dream. All these years later, I still have trouble helping people understand my dream, but I'm still reading, writing, dreaming, and trying to revolutionize... www.humbledeeds.com/a-story