Thanks to the library, I have learned that I don’t always have to own books to read them. I am amazed at the easiness of reading sometimes. It is easier than watching a film. Watching a film alone.
Let’s discuss the ease of partaking the three chief forms of fictional entertainment.
While watching a movie, there is always the chance I will get uncomfortable and turn it off for awhile. Or get distracted because of some character’s inane personality flaw. It is harder for me to like characters I have just met. It can take me several days to watch a movie.
While watching a television show, that is less likely. There is a non-insignificant chance that I will care about the characters. Time does not need to be wasted getting to like them. If I have seen a few episodes, that is already taken care of. I can share in their triumphs and failures.
Then we get to reading. This can be broken into two parts. Short stories and novels. Despite the episodic nature of the short story collection, it is much more like a film to me. Each story requires me to learn to care about the character. Once I do, there is a good chance that the story will end soon after, and I am forced to start a new story, with new characters. I recently read “We Never Talk About My Brother” by Peter S Beagle. (You may have heard of him.) It was gruelling to get through. Most of the stories were entertaining, and I had heard the title one as a podcast. But still, there was no motivation for me to pick it up after finishing a story. It almost felt like work.
Then we get to the novel. It is criminally easy to like a character that you can hear the thought process of. And you have to think while you read, so you can’t be distracted. The book won’t read itself. Unlike a movie. An author has total control of the script and isn’t pandering to investors. There is no big investor hoping to make their money back. The financial outlay for the producer of a novel is minimal by Hollywood standards. With that freedom, you get good books. Books that draw you back to them. Books that can be read in bed before going to sleep or getting up in the morning. (Can’t do that with television without feeling like a loser.)
So, does that mean a novel is mindless entertainment to me? Probably not, but you can see where I am getting at. A film requires too much effort to watch.

Some of my arguments fall apart when I reveal that the novel I just finished, “Steelheart” by Brandon Sanderson, is officially classified as “Children’s Fiction”. That may explain why I was able to inhale it so easily.