this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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I had a coworker approach me on break and start telling me about a book he was reading and how much he was enjoying it. Towards the end, he mentioned struggling with it and that he wished someone had told him how great reading was earlier. We were both damn near 30, and it was a YA novel. I resisted the asshole urge to roast him because, shit, at least he's trying?
I'm glad reading is cool now.
Not only is he trying, he laments not learning better when he was younger. Great self-awareness, and taking ownership today.
Very true. Hopefully, he still enjoys reading today.
And now you get to recommend him all the good stuff he missed!
He is an obese man in the gym. Literally nothing more admirable than someone improving themselves.
Exactly! And not just doing it, but sticking to it AND vulnerably admitting to struggling.
If only more people could do it.
My spouse always says, you don't mock a sick person in hospital, why mock someone who is working to improve other aspects of themselves.
When I was in the US Air Force, I was deployed to a US Marine camp once, and listening to those guys chat among themselves was always a treat. You never knew what dumbass comments were going to come out of their mouths.
One day, one of the young corporals mentioned that, while traveling to another base, he got stuck waiting for a connecting flight between bases for about a week and he was so bored, he read A BOOK. He stressed the fact that he's never read an entire book from cover to cover before, but he did on this layover because he was so extremely bored.
To my surprise, the other Marines just nodded along, like this made perfect sense to them. Not a single person harassed him for never reading a book before (and they harass each other all the time for the simplest things).
I mean, we poke fun at Marines for being dumb. They call themselves jarheads, which is an allusion to the fact that their heads are as empty as a jar. But it still blows my mind to hear the dumb things they say sometimes.
That's not why Marines are called jarheads. While we do love the occasional crayon, we're not all stupid.
Jarhead first originated somewhere during WW2 because the high collar on some of our uniforms making it look like our heads were popping out of jars. The term has meant a few other things since then, like referencing the high and tight haircut, or being so "uptight" on their training and discipline and described as having that hat screwed on tight like the lid of a jar.
For the record I read a lot! I love reading. My group of friends in there read a lot. We played tons of RPGs.
I had a friend tell me that she didn't learn to read until she was like eight. Ya never really know where people come from. All of our lives are so different.
That doesn't sound too bad considering almost half of Americans (regardless of age) reads below 6th grade level. At 8 you should still be able to overtake most grownup Americans in reading skills.
I wasn't capable of reading completely on my own until I was nine years old. I also made top grades in all of my college English classes. Where you start doesn't necessarily dictate where you'll end up, especially if you enjoy an activity as much as I enjoyed reading.
I dont think that is considered particularly late here in central europe. Yes, kids should be able to read properly at 6, but a lot of them don't.
We've all got to start somewhere.
I read YA as Yaoi and I'm like "or course it's reasonable to roast him for telling a coworker about the Yaoi he's reading"
No, the correct reaction is "I do not know the Jah-Oi of which you speak. What is this art form that I have never heard of?"
trust me, it is indeed easy to hate reading if you have asshole teachers. he got lucky and was able to discover reading at a later age.
A while back I read several bad books in a row and decided to try manga for a break. Some of them were good, others weren’t. Then I got frustrated because most of the stuff I was reading wasn’t finished, so I sought out the source material novels that were further along. Ended up finding some really good books that I otherwise would have never knew existed.
Highly recommend the Ascendence of a Bookworm novel.
It's better to read what you enjoy than what you "should" be reading.
Given enough time, they'll maybe become the same thing anyway.
Struggling how though?
If they were struggling with the vocabulary, then that might be roastable.
But if they meant, e.g., struggling with the themes, that might be understandable. YA books sometimes tackle difficult subjects or are subtle, layered, etc.
Why roast someone trying to improve? We haven't all had the same opportunities in life.
Why don't you ask @Univ3rse@lemmynsfw.com, who I was responding to?
It was the general reading/vocabulary.
I don't think it matters in this context. Person is trying to get into reading, nothing roastable about that.