Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out

*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*
*A WGN Radio Best Book of 2024*
*A Good Housekeeping Reads pick*

A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a "beloved and wonderful writer" (George Saunders), teacher, bibliophile, and Thurber Prize Semifinalist

We read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference, or simply to pass a rainy afternoon. No matter the reason, books have the power to keep us safe, to challenge us, and perhaps most importantly, to make us more fully human.

Shannon Reed, a longtime teacher, lifelong reader, and New Yorker contributor, gets it. With one simple goal in mind, she makes the case that we should read for pleasure above all else. In this whip-smart, laugh-out-loud-funny collection, Reed shares surprising stories from her life as a reader and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students, featuring fan-favorite classics to contemporary works and more:

• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
• The Wizard of Oz
• Gone Girl
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Little Fires Everywhere
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• Jane Eyre
• …and more!

From the varied novels she cherishes to the ones she didn’t, Reed takes us on a rollicking tour through the comforting world of literature, celebrating the books we love, the readers who love them, and the ways in which literature can transform us for the better.

Shannon Reed is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh and a contributor to The New Yorker's “Shouts & Murmurs” pieces. Her work has also appeared in Real Simple, The Paris Review, Slate, LitHub, Longreads, The Guardian, AFAR, The Washington Post, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and most notably, McSweeney's. She holds an MA in Educational Theatre and Teaching Secondary English, and an MFA in Creative Writing.