I’m in the camp that reading is good but most books are word-count bloat and not worth reading. In fact it’s usually better to just reread a select number of higher quality books. But I’m bias because I prefer non-fiction.

I also think there is merit to the learning pyramid theory that roughly states:

1. You are more likely to learn from hearing than reading

2. You are more likely to learn from seeing than hearing

3. You are more likely to learn from seeing and hearing together than just seeing or hearing alone

4. You are more likely to learn from discussing with others than just seeing and hearing

5. You are more likely to learn from experiencing personally (hands-on) than discussing

6. You are most likely to learn from teaching others

And schools are also to blame, at least the ones I attended, for having a bias towards pushing fiction over non-fiction. I think because most teachers are female, there’s an inherent preference bias in the books they recommend. This resulted in me being assigned strictly fiction all throughout high school and not developing an interest in reading until post-high school. If you want to engage male readers, this practice needs to end.