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Illustration by Lisa Adams

One woman sometimes decided whether to date a man by giving him a book. Did he read it? If so, what did he think of it? Others ended relationships, including marriages, with men who didn't support their reading. "How could I be married to someone who doesn't read?" asked one. Psychologist Carrie Becker, Ph.D. '97, studied these women readers to explore how one might engender a passion for reading. "I'm interested in preventing not illiteracy, but aliteracy," she says. "It's not that most kids and adults can't read, but that they don't. Rather than looking at the have-nots, I studied avid readers."

How avid were they? The average subject consumed six to seven volumes monthly; everyone in the study was reading at least three books a month, and some polished off as many as 20. Becker's sample of 40 women all lived in Vermont and were 35 to 65 years of age; referrals from small-town librarians, who knew their heavy readers well, helped find them. Becker interviewed each woman on her reading history and habits, and then followed up with a questionnaire. Her findings challenge some of the prevailing dogma of educational theory.

"The major emphasis has always been on books and reading," Becker says. "The idea was, if you could guarantee that parents read a certain number of books to their young kids each night, the kids would be fine--they'd be motivated readers." Several literacy initiatives from the U.S. Department of Education have taken this approach, which also informs the slogan of a recent campaign by the American Library Association: "just read."

Sounds reasonable enough. But wait: certain cultures, like those in Scandinavia, do not encourage children to read independently until they are well along in school, perhaps as old as 6 or 7. Yet these Scandinavian countries have some of the highest literacy rates in the world, above 95 percent. "There's a difference between those cultures and ours in language interaction--dialogues with children, including children in adult-level conversations," says Becker. "It's the quality of interaction between the parent and child, or teacher and child, that motivates the kids in reading. It's really not so much about books, as language."

For example, one avid reader recalled that "To our mother, it was very important that we spoke the king's English--she would often correct our grammar. A dictionary was always nearby to settle an argument about how to spell or pronounce a word. We worked lots of word puzzles. And there were formal conversations at the dinner table."

Becker's research, which became her psychology doctoral dissertation, notes that avid readers shared language-rich backgrounds, but adds that biblioholism comes in two flavors (see box). For Type I readers, reading is an integral component of identity; it serves a variety of functions, both in meeting personal needs and dealing with human relationships. In contrast, Type II readers use books as a way to escape, to relax, to gain knowledge; reading, for these women, had less to do with their relationships.

When Becker asked subjects to name a few books they had recently read, a Type II respondent might say, "I'm not too good on titles...there was this thriller set in a law firm I borrowed from my sister-in-law." But a Type I reader might answer, "I've got three going right now--I'm rereading the E. Annie Proulx novel, The Shipping News--the one that won the Pulitzer--plus I've started the new Dominick Dunne, and I'm halfway through The City Below, by James Carroll." Type I readers focused on specific authors, and on style of writing; they also tended to read more literary fiction. Type II readers recalled stories rather than authors or titles, and their escapist reading leaned more toward formula fiction, such as that produced by mega-selling authors John Grisham and Danielle Steel.

Becker also asked subjects how their lives would be different if they did not read. Type I readers were at a loss: they could hardly imagine a life without books. But Type II readers suggested alternatives: they might do more gardening, take up a musical instrument, or draw more; about half the time, they felt such activities could reasonably substitute for reading. "If books are a way of escaping and enjoying, then there are a number of other things that can do this," Becker says. "But if you are reading for the writing, and to absorb imaginative fiction that changes you--what is the substitute for that?"

~ Craig Lambert

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