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Do people still read for entertainment?

Plenty of people read for pleasure. The reason hardly anyone reads those crap literary magazines is because the stories in there are from writer's who try to be literary for the sake of being literary. I don't mind someone who shows off their talent, but someone who shows off the machinery without the little people that help run it never appeals to me. I'll take pop culture crap over "An eternal dance of receding twilight," any day. Not that I abhor that style of writing--I actually love it when it comes across at the end of beginning of a scene--but when you continue to toss it out like freaking candy on Halloween, I get just a tad annoyed.

Now, people who can remain literary while simaltaneously telling a good tale (David Mitchell, Alex Garland, Junot Diaz), they're the kings of the hill in my opinion. And very rarely do I see short versions of their writing.
 
I've only read a few of the literary journals, but a similar feeling came over me. Are these literary for the mere sake of it? Few, if any, of the stories moved me and the journals tend to sit on my shelf unfinished. I found one the other day from 2002 in unread pristine condition buried between dog-eared and creased books. I keep wanting to like them but time and time again they end up neglected on my shelf. Still, every featured author usually boasts a list of published credentials, so someone must read them. And getting included in an issue must carry some weight with someone. I don't know.
 
Wow ... I know I read more than 15 books before I finished fourth grade.

And that isn't counting all the Dr. Seuss I read in first grade. I know I read almost all the Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden series, Little Women, Little Men, and four or five of Alcott's other books, Tom Sawyer, Alice in Wonderland, The Little Prince, and Peter Pan, and all the Little House on the Prairie books before I finished fourth grade.

People do still read for entertainment. Most of my nieces and half of my nephews are readers. Two of my sisters and both of my brothers are readers. Goodness! If people were not reading then why are Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Doubleday bookclub, and Book of the Month Club doing so well???

Readers will ALWAYS be around.
 
Yes, I still do read for entertainment too. Besides, reading really makes me think and opens up my mind to a whole new world (different worlds all the time in fact). I enjoy plunging into the world created by the authors and linger there, lost in thoughts ... :)
 
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