Reading . . . as a grown-up . . .  is meant to be a fun and pleasurable activity. After all, we’re reading because we WANT to read. And we’re old enough – and free enough –  that we can read anything we CHOOSE to read. On any timetable. In any format. At any speed. With any quirky habits we might have. AND . . . without anyone looking over our shoulders or questioning our choices.

But sometimes . . . it doesn’t feel that way.

Sometimes it even feels like there are . . . Reading Police. . . out there. Judging what we read, how we read, how much we read, yada yada. (And if you suddenly find Radiohead’s Karma Police playing in your head, you are not alone. It’s been my constant soundtrack for the last week as I’ve been thinking about this post.)

When Bonny and Carole and I first started talking about establishing our Read With Us LOUNGE, this theme kept coming up in our discussions, and we knew we needed to focus our attention on addressing it. So our main objective in creating this “no rules, just fun” summer reading lounge . . . was to talk about and perhaps expose the Reading Police for what they are: Judgemental thugs (real or imagined) who steal reading joy and make readers feel bad for, well . . . reading their own way.

I’m not sure where the Reading Police came from, and I don’t know why so many of us have given them “space” in our heads, but it probably has something to do with . . . school. There were a lot of reading “shoulds” that came along with reading in school – even for kids who adored reading (like me). The “shoulds” we learned about reading from our teachers . . . are sticky. They tend to hang around for a long, long time, deep in our psyches. (And especially when they’re reinforced by . . . oh, parents and friends and other readers we meet along the way . . . )

Now, though, we’re reading adults who are no longer in school. Yet, the Reading Police . . . linger. They are EVERYWHERE. Sometimes we – (yes US) – even become Reading Police ourselves . . . without intending to! Whenever we make judgments (out loud or silently) about how or what other people are reading, we are “policing” the reading choices of others.

I’ve been working on NOT being a member of the Reading Police. It’s a challenge sometimes . . . because most of us do have long-held beliefs and opinions about how-reading-should-be-done AND we like to have our own reading preferences validated by other readers. It’s just human nature! I came up with a couple of little mantras to help me quash any of my own Reading Police tendencies . . . I tell myself “Reading is Reading” or “No Rules Just Fun” if I find myself wandering into judging territory. It helps redirect my thinking in a beneficial way. (These mantras work on myself, too, by the way, if I realize I’m policing my own reading choices.)

And, of course, sometimes I’m a victim of the Reading Police myself. (It’s harder to be a poetry-loving, mythology and classics nerd than you may guess!) But, even more sacrilegious than that . . .   I happen to be someone who . . . let’s just say . . . doesn’t always read my books in a linear fashion. (Which means I might skip around and even read the end of a book before I’m “there.”) When I admit this – out loud – to others . . . Oh! The horrors!  I don’t think anything brings out the Reading Police quite like admitting you might, from time to time, read the end of the book out of order. Do I care? No. Does it change my behavior? Not really. Although I am more cautious about telling others. Because they do judge me as “reading wrong” . . . or even cheating. (At what I’m not quite sure, but those words have been uttered to me on more than one occasion . . . that I am cheating by reading the ending out of order.)

(Just as an aside, there is research from the University of California showing the many benefits of “spoilers” when it comes to reading. Spoilers don’t actually ruin a story, and in fact, they often help readers – or movie-watchers – enjoy the story even more!) 

Anyway.  I hope the Read With Us LOUNGE is helping you get past any of those policing tendencies you may harbor – about your own reading habits or about the habits of others.

So. What do you think? Do you ever feel the presence of the Reading Police in your reading life? What do you do to counter those thugs – when you are feeling judged . . . or when you’re feeling judge-y? Do you have any reading habits you try to keep on the down-low (like me with my non-linear reading tendencies) to avoid the scorn of the Reading Police?

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The Read With Us LOUNGE is open all summer long!
Grab a book. Find a comfy spot to read with us for awhile – and chime in with your thoughts and insight, too.

No rules!
Just fun!

And be sure to visit Bonny and Carole today to see what they’re talking about in the LOUNGE.