This influencer A Madrid native named María Pombo (she may not be related to the writer Álvaro Pombo) and who has more than three million followers, has said on TikTok: "I think we should start to get over the fact that there are people who don't like to read and that you're no better at making them like to read." The phrase was relevant because she shared a video of her "bookstore" (sic) where there were no books to be seen, as a follower pointed out.
She's right. She's absolutely right, and we shouldn't dwell on it any further. We're not better—of course—at liking to read. Nor are we better if we like to write. For purely format reasons (looking at the signs on linked pages and turning them into words), we're no better than other fiction consumers, such as theater, film, or television lovers. Simply put, our format (which isn't the only one we use) is somewhat more complicated than others. It's more difficult, mechanically, to read a book than to watch Maria Pombo's videos. It costs more to ride a pedal bike than an electric bike, but pedal bike riders aren't "better" than others, even if they burn more calories.
Being a reader has some advantages, of course, compared to not being one. The capacity for attention, abstraction, and imagining make us more complex and critical people. The fact that a newspaper now allows comments—often brilliant—from readers (and I could write that "now" in capital letters and without the commas) demonstrates how fascinating this game of reading is. Therefore, readers, while not better than non-readers, do tend to have a more alert gaze (the opposite of the bovine gaze of someone who spends all day watching short videos on their phone while simultaneously binge-watching a TV show and scratching their groin). Expression is everything on a face. And the expression of a child reader, a young reader, or an adult reader is alive, voracious, insatiable, mischievous, ironic, expectant, calm, joyful. And that's why the beloved Emili Teixidor said, quite rightly, that readers are more handsome.
